More than two years ago, our team developed a vision to achieve efficiencies in energy markets using blockchain technology. However, we quickly realized that in order to maximize benefits, we needed an always-online hardware device. Our preference would have been to buy something off the shelf, but no product existed which met our requirements for both security and accessibility. More than two years later, we’re on the precipice of releasing the Lattice1. In our estimation, this is by far the most robust and secure way to store and access private keys; the foundation for user controlled and more efficient commerce. The Lattice1 is a core component to our energy business, but beyond that, we anticipate the Lattice1 will also bring benefits to individuals and companies in the broader blockchain ecosystem.

Who should buy a Lattice1?

When we meet people in the blockchain space, we are often asked why they should buy a Lattice1. After all, isn’t GridPlus only an energy company? While we constructed the Lattice1 with an eye towards facilitating our energy business, this same piece of hardware can be used outside of the energy vertical to offer significant value to blockchain users right away.

At its most fundamental level, the Lattice1 is a secure, stateless signer (meaning it has no direct knowledge of blockchain state). It comes with WiFi capability and an Ethernet port to give it necessary internet connectivity. This connectivity allows the Lattice1 to wirelessly pair with external applications, starting with the GridPlus open-source mobile wallet specifically designed to integrate with the Lattice1. All pairings and subsequent requests utilize secure channels derived from an elliptic curve key exchange between endpoints (ECDH). To learn more about pairings and associated permissions against those pairings, please read a blog post by our Chief Technology Officer, Alex Miller.

With the above topology, there exist myriad applications that can leverage the Lattice1’s extensible security model. We’ve also created an SDK so that any developer can write a third party application that integrates with the Lattice1. The first application to leverage our SDK is the GridPlus mobile wallet. This wallet can request signatures from your Lattice1 for Bitcoin, Ether and ERC20 transfers. In the future, we plan to expand the firmware to support additional blockchain assets and signature schemes.

A full write-up from Karl Kreder, Chief Security Officer of GridPlus, on how the Lattice1 acts as your secure gateway to the web3 ecosystem will be coming in the near future. As a teaser, some of the upcoming applications we think might benefit from the Lattice1 will be:

Backing up private keys onto one or more SafeCards, leveraging physically uncloneable functions (PUFs)

Automatic permissioned recurring payments

Atomic swap transactions using HTLCs between ETH and BTC

Running a node to route all crypto transactions and/or web browsing through TOR

Running an IPFS node and routing ENS names to provide simple access to the decentralized web

Connecting the Lattice1 to an app box that is staking or validating on Ethereum or other blockchains

Watching your Plasma chain using data stored on the Lattice1’s expandable storage

The Lattice1 is an un-opinionated piece of hardware. It exists merely to take in requests and produce signatures in a secure fashion if those requests conform to a pre-set schema. Therefore a limitless number of applications can run on the Lattice1 platform and we believe developers who care about the security of their end users should consider a Lattice1 integration.

Once we ship the first production run, we will dedicate more time to implementing features that didn’t make it into version one of the firmware. We anticipate many early firmware updates as we add features. If you would like to participate on the cutting edge of blockchain tech, perhaps you should scoop one of the first Lattices off of the production line. Our tentative shipping time frame is September of 2019 subject to logistics remaining on schedule.

The GRID Token

GridPlus utilizes an ERC20 token on the Ethereum blockchain to give our energy customers access to wholesale energy prices, with no markup from GridPlus Energy, our Texas energy retailer. We’ve been slowly on-boarding customers since going live in February of this year. Two weeks ago, we launched on PowerToChoose which has significantly grown our customer base — yesterday alone we added more than 60 new customers. We also recently signed a licensing deal with Rynergy, a startup looking to utilize the GridPlus tech stack to give access to wholesale pricing of energy to its future customers in Singapore via the GRID token. While it is great to see retail energy redemptions take place, we decided to expand the redemptive fungibility of the GRID token.

In addition to the existing permitted energy redemptions and beginning with this production run of the Lattice1, GRID will now also be redeemable for a significant discount on the Lattice1!

The Lattice1 will retail at $349. For the first production run, we will accept 200 GRID to reduce the price to $149. We plan to continue allowing GRID redemptions beyond the first production run, but the value of the discount will depend on the future Lattice1 retail price and cost to manufacture. Over time, we expect our cost to manufacture to decrease as we achieve better pricing quotes for components purchased at scale.

How to Redeem GRID and Purchase a Lattice1

To redeem GRID to receive a discount on the purchase of a Lattice1, first ensure that you have MetaMask installed.

Note the Lattice1 will only be available to customers in regions covered by the FCC or CE marks for the first production run.

Next, go to https://gridplus.io and select Lattice1 on the top bar.