Consider the following facts:

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is a heat-trapping “greenhouse” gas. In the post-industrial age, human civilization is releasing large amounts of stored CO2 into the atmosphere that would not be released as part of the natural CO2 cycle.

Politicians can debate about the extent to which humans are affecting the climate (although scientists are mostly on the same page). But at a basic level, hopefully everyone can at least agree that using renewable energy is better in the long run than burning fossil fuels.

The problem is that in many cases switching to renewables requires making some changes and overcoming some challenges. And although in the long-run, it's almost always cheaper to go renewable, the up-front cost of entry can be a big barrier. More people would switch if they had stronger and shorter-term incentives to do so.

Swytch is a blockchain-based crypto solution to that problem. It aims to track and incentivize renewable energy use by creating a truly global, decentralized carbon market that rewards both organizations and individuals for reducing their carbon footprint and generating renewable energy.

How Swytch Works:

At its most basic level, what Swytch does is allocate tokens to users on its blockchain based on their rate of renewable energy generation. It has an on-chain “oracle” that assesses data from sensors in your renewable-energy generator, calculates the carbon output offset by your renewable energy generation, and awards you with a proportionate amount in Swytch crypto-tokens.

For example, if you're an individual with a rooftop solar panel, you can connect that panel's output data to the Swytch blockchain, and the oracle will measure your electrcity generation and regularly allocate you tokens accordingly.

It works the same way if you're a large corporation with a wind farm, or any other renewable-energy generator. At present, the oracle's only capable of measuring generation, but in the future Swytch plans to add the capability to measure (and thus incentivize) other climate-friendly actions like driving electric vehicles.

Why Anyone Would Want the Swytch Token?

Obviously, Swytch's system only works if the tokens have some real value; otherwise there's no real incentive at play. But because it will be collecting big, global-scale data about renewable energy generation rates, local electricity demand and prices and how those are affected by renewables, etc., it will have large amounts of data that's valuable to governments, energy companies, academic institutions, and more. That data will be available only to holders of Swytch tokens.

Swytch also says the system (and the tokens) will be valuable to governments and corporations looking to incentivize renewable energy generation and use. Because it's blockchain-based and decentralized, Swytch is trustless and transparent, so companies and governments don't need to worry about people gaming their incentive systems, and they don't need to go to the effort of verifying renewable energy generation because the Swytch oracle has already verified it and the proof is stored on the Swytch chain.

Swytch tokens thus act as a kind of immutable proof-of-renewable-energy-generation that could be exchanged for all kinds of rewards. In the future, as Swytch develops and adds partnerships, the tokens might be redeemable for green-energy hardware, or perhaps local tax credits, or a variety of other benefits in local, national, or global sustainability programs. The sky's really the limit.

And of course, individuals interested in feeling like they're contributing to the global fight against climate change will also likely be interested in the tokens, since they offer immutable, ironclad-by-blockchain proof of their contributions.

The Swytch Token

Swytch is approaching the launch date for a public token presale on June 12, and it has allocated 10% of all capable-of-existing Swytch tokens for this token generation event. The remaining 90% of Swytch tokens will be generated on-demand by the oracle and paid as renewable energy is generated.

A total of 3.65 billion tokens can be generated by Swytch's oracle over the next 22 years – a number that's pegged to match the global estimated energy of 36.5 trillion KWh by 2040. There's no “burning” mechanism, but because tokens are minted as renewable energy is generated, it's possible that not all of the possible 3.65 billion tokens will ever be generated, and the initially available supply on the markets will be much less.

Also, the amount of energy generation required to mint a Swytch token scales based on how much in carbon emissions that energy is offsetting. As the world gets “greener”, it will require progressively more renewable energy generation to mint a Swytch token.

Can Swytch Help the World Swytch?

Like any pre-crowdsale blockchain project, it's important to note that Swytch is still in the early stages of making its vision a reality. But there are strong signs that Swytch really could help us all Swytch.

On the staffing side, Swytch's management team brings decades of experience in energy, finance, and technology to the table, in addition to some serious brainpower. Case in point: founder and CIO John Clippinger brings three Ivy-League diplomas to the table (Yale undergrad, UPenn MA and Ph.D) in addition to work experience as a research scientist at the MIT Media Lab (among other impressive credentials). And Swytch also boasts a large advisory board with diverse backgrounds and skillsets.

And although it's not totally up and running yet, it has also already signed up a number of impressive partners, showing that it's on the right track and there's real interest in its platform. Its existing partners include blockchain and tech companies like BTCLabs and Autonomi, academic institutions like University of Cambridge, and four city government partners in South Korea, all with populations of over 500,000.

Swytch is also showing signs that it plans to do things in an open, transparent way. For example: one of the first items on its agenda after the public crowdsale is a third-party audit to ensure transparency.

There are signs that even outsiders recognize Swytch's potential. The company recently beat out 21 other startups to win a pitch competition at a decentralization convention. Token investors who are interested in saving the planet – or just interested in promising projects – would be well-advised to give it a look.