Tom Lyons, Interview
Shell is not a company we normally associate with blockchain. Shell, how long have you been working in this area?
Shell has had its blockchain team in place since 2016. Shell was one of the first energy companies to get involved. We were founding members of the Energy Web Foundation and conveners of several blockchain initiatives within the energy sector. Shell has explored how Web3 and blockchain can be used to solve various problems. This is particularly true in the context the energy transition towards a sustainable and lower-carbon energy system.
What was your initial focus and how have you evolved since then?
The initial focus of our efforts was to improve existing processes. What can blockchain do to make our processes cheaper, faster, and better? Then, we began to look at how blockchain could be used to expand into new markets. The third part is where we currently are.
This third space is all about new business models in the age of Web3, NFTs and Metaverse. New ways to do things, new customers, and exploring business opportunities through avenues previously unexplored.
Could you provide examples of the new models of business you are referring to?
Take the energy transformation. We are witnessing a shift away from centralized production of energy to one that is much more distributed. Economies of scale are very important when producing oil and natural gas. Oil and gas production is a large-scale business that requires heavy capital investments. Solar panels are becoming more common in the energy transformation. We also look at electric vehicles which could become energy storage units, used both as consumption devices and for storage.
This means that there is a significant opportunity for decentralization in the energy production sector. A large national grid structure is another example, where transmission of power has mainly been in one direction, from power producers towards power consumers. Now, societies build two-way systems. “prosumers” Can produce electricity as well as sell it to grid.
While this decentralization occurs in the energy sector, we are also experiencing a similar process on the internet. Web3 technologies and Blockchain technology can be used to manage decentralized systems. We can see that these two changes are closely related.
Then there is the sustainability part. When a company claims sustainability, it is telling the market, regulators and customers something about, for instance, the origin of the carbon intensity in its energy products (chemicals or fuels or electrons). These claims should be supported with transparent verification.
Customers can be assured that their purchases are made from renewable sources, or that any carbon credits they have signed up for represent the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. As blockchain can track the renewable energy from source Customers can get additional information about the low-carbon attributes of this product.
Do you have any projects that are aimed at sustainability?
Yes. AveliaOne of our flagship projects, which is a platform for accelerating the adoption of sustainable aircraft fuel (SAF), focuses on this kind of use case. Avelia tracks the injection of SAF into the complex global jet fuel system and its consumption by airlines or corporate flyers. This allows buyers to claim SAF they paid for even if it is not physically available at an airport, but is used elsewhere in the skies.
Avelia is using Energy Web Chain. This public blockchain is compatible with EVM. The use of public blockchains is important because our team’s philosophy is to emphasize public verifiability to enable transparency and traceability.
There are other projects in the area and we have also developed Proofs of Concept. We are convinced that the use of emerging digital technology such as blockchain, will accelerate the energy shift and ensure trust in both our claims for sustainability and those made by our customers.
What other projects do you have in mind?
Recently, another major project has been launched. Falcon, This is a co-developed product with Wipro that we piloted at our operations. Falcon is a platform designed for industrial supply chains management. It was created with Wipro and released on the Polygon network.
Falcon essentially eliminates a need for physical paper trails for heavy industrial machinery, which make auditability and tracability difficult. Falcon instead relies on digital product passports that make data more reliable and accessible.
We’ve worked on traceability for sustainable chemical products. We conducted two Proof of Concepts (PoCs) with different players in order to determine if the plastic was produced using a biobased source Circular source (recycled), a material that is different from virgin plastic. Blockchain is used to trace the material from its origins through all points in the supply-chain. source End-customer
You announced recently a collaboration between Gitcoin and yourself. What was the goal?
Regenerative Finance or ReFi is the focus of this initiative. ReFi explores how Web3 governance and infrastructure models can support sustainable economies. We were wondering how we could help this space, which is still quite young. work Support startups building enabling solutions.
We chose to collaborate with Gitcoin because we are fans of what Gitcoin does. It’s an innovative way of using crowd-sourced wisdom for funding projects across many fields, including climate change. Their approach seemed most appropriate for the early stages of ReFi.
Shell granted grant funding to Gitcoin during four of the climate rounds. The projects that want to benefit from these funds can opt in. The community decides which projects are funded and how much.
Shell is the first company to work with a DAO.
What are the biggest developments in the Ethereum business ecosystem that you have seen today?
Switching to Ethereum as a currency is a key development. proof-of-stake Moving away from consensus mechanisms proof-of-workThis is a result of the growing shift in enterprise use from private blockchains to public ones.
We did a great deal of work at first. work With private chains. We are naturally focused on data privacy and security, so our initial efforts were to de-risk the technology and prove compliance. Traceability, transparency, and trust are our three main pillars. Public blockchains can deliver that at scale, and it is very clear. We can use public blockchains more effectively with solutions like zero-knowledgeproofs.
The ability to create a large ecosystem is another advantage of using a public chain. The ecosystems that form around public chains with permissionless setups are more likely than those formed in private chains with walled gardens.
When talking about public blockchains the number of EVM compatible chains is a factor that speaks volumes for Ethereum. This creates a bigger ecosystem, but it also provides a certain level of interoperability. This is something we must also consider. We need to ensure our solutions can communicate with one another when we implement Web3 into the decentralized future energy system.
Vikram Seth serves as Head of Blockchain & Web3 at ShellVikram is a seasoned professional with over ten years of experience in this industry. He has played a crucial role in integrating Web3 and blockchain technologies into the Energy sector. Vikram has over a decade’s experience in the energy sector and is committed to using these technologies for sustainable global development. He is especially interested in the use of DeFi, cryptocurrency and NFTs for projects aimed at sustainable, regenerative and green development.
“This article is not financial advice.”
“Always do your own research before making any type of investment.”
Source: entethalliance.org
