Bank To The future (B2F)
Savings & Loans in
Digital Energy Coins
that provide energy consumers with control over bills and consumption,
built on the Blockchain
for a defendable franchise in smaller-scale mobile markets.
Consumers today do not master their own energy future. They can only wait and see whether next year’s energy bills will rise or decline - whether for heating oil, gas or electricity.
At B2F we will give some control back to energy consumers by creating digital energy coins - heating oil coins, electricity coins and gas coins. Consumers can use the coins to pay for energy bills at partner utilities (or for other goods at partner retailers). But also, and most importantly, they can save the coins in their accounts and can borrow them to finance energy-efficiency projects (solar panels, isolation, heat pumps, etc.).
Savers will create the coins and borrowers will put them to use. Moreover, it is in the savings and loans (S&L) process that consumers can gain more control over their energy future.
Indeed, consumers that worry about future energy bills can start saving-up energy coins today. This creates the possibility to separate the moment of buying energy from its consumption. That new option provides more control over future energy bills.
Other consumers can borrow energy coins to realise energy-efficiency projects. This links the ultimate cost of those projects to realised gains over time. That option provides more control over future consumption.
This then is the novel B2F value proposition for energy consumers: increased control over bills and consumption trough Savings & Loans (S&L) in Digital Energy Coins.
In contrast with established banks, B2F will opt to develop coins and S&L transactions on the blockchain. Instead of creating a central master copy of all transaction and account data, the distributed ledger of transactions will be shared with all users.
Security and data integrity in the blockchain is guaranteed trough encryption protocols that are administered by a community of miners.
This approach takes away the conflict - implicit in the traditional paradigm - between increasing numbers of mobile applications and the need for absolute data integrity.
In a traditional set-up the difficulty and cost of obtaining data integrity increases when interconnectivity and number of mobile users rise. This is not the case on a blockchain.
In addition, in a traditional approach large investments in perimeter security lead to scale economies. A blockchain has no need for such investments.
Developing the B2F value proposition on a Blockchain is therefore especially suited to compete in (a) the 21st century mobile age and (b) niche markets.
In a somewhat broader and more speculative perspective, if the above value proposition can successfully be launched for energy, chances are that useful offerings can also be developed in other areas of households’ budgets along similar principles. Examples could be housing coins or local food coins.
In addition, a well functioning blockchain-based S&L operating system for digital energy coins could conceivably serve in a generic form as operating system for diverse alternative currencies or even for simple and smaller-scale retail banking launches.
However, a first enterprise project will aim to launch Belgian energy coins only (see more detail here). The roadmap for this will start with a feasibility study, followed by pilot and full-scale launch. This roadmap, along with estimates of required funds in each phase and targeted funding sources is provided below. Preliminary 5 year financial projections are also shown.
We are currently searching for partners with experience in early stage ventures to actively support our business plan development, pilot and launch.