At Grid+, our primary long-term goal is to facilitate elective, passive revenue streams for our customers. Grid+ customers will be exposed to electricity market fluctuations, which incentivizes them to purchase batteries and arbitrage those markets — this means buying electricity when it is cheap and selling when it is expensive. The revenue earned from this arbitrage exists in the form of Ethereum-based BOLT tokens and is stored on the user’s Agent device, which holds the cryptographic identifier for the user’s household in a secure enclave.

However, there are many other “virtual” revenue streams to which the Agent device could theoretically be connected. Because the Agent will have a unique cryptographic identifier (a private key), it can be an actor on any number of cryptographic, distributed networks (e.g. Ethereum, Bitcoin, etc).

With the advent of Casper-based proof-of-stake, this becomes very interesting. In Bitcoin and other popular proof-of-work-based networks, it is infeasible for even the most resource-heavy computers to make a dent in network security. It is notoriously unprofitable for an average person to mine Bitcoin because there is just too much specialized hardware invested already.

Bitcoin mining farm — good luck competing with this.

Similarly, any proof-of-work network propagated and secured by small, resource-constrained devices would be trivial to attack and therefore worthless. However, this outlook changes dramatically if security is based on token deposits, as with Casper-based proof-of-stake. If you’re unfamiliar with Casper and its version of proof-of-stake, I encourage you to read this article.

As discussed in the Grid+ whitepaper, one use case of the Agent is to run Casper and secure the Ethereum main net. This is made feasible by a combination of two properties:

Availability: The Agent is [theoretically] always connected to the internet and therefore capable of participating in any network 24/7. Security: The Agent makes all cryptographic signatures in a separate environment, which is held in its secure enclave (discussed here).

This combination of high-availability and strong security makes the Agent ideal for Casper staking. However, the future may become even more interesting.

Artist’s conception of the Plasma Network.

The Plasma Network

I have been skeptical of the so-called “network of blockchains” in the past, but I’ll admit that the newly released Plasma paper, written by Joseph Poon and Vitalik Buterin, has changed my position on the subject.

Plasma describes [in somewhat repetitive detail] a network of Ethereum-based blockchains that periodically checkpoint their state hashes onto the Ethereum main net. This is the first implementation of a blockchain multiverse to which I have seen theoretical merit. Although the paper leaves out several critical details, it is nevertheless a reasonable starting point.

A Network of Casper-Based Blockchains

If we suspend disbelief momentarily, we can imagine a network of Casper-based blockchains that periodically checkpoint a hash of their state to their respective smart contracts on the Ethereum main net. Example chains might include OmiseGo or AdChain, which may each opt to run their own network responsible for processing second-layer transactions only relevant to the respective application. This topology translates to a more fragmented second layer with lower security, but higher throughput — a balance that may be entirely appropriate for the application in question.

Some may recall that I have also been vocally opposed to “app-tokens”, but only for payments. I’ll admit that a proof-of-stake blockchain using a particular app-token for native network security is a juicy proposition and may serve as a legitimate solution to many scaling concerns.

Because of its secure signing environment and its ability to act on any arbitrary crypto-network, the Grid+ Agent device is perfectly suited to maintain any Casper-based network in this blockchain multiverse. One can imagine a Grid+ customer presented with a screen of optional networks on which to stake coins.

Connecting your agent to second-layer, Casper-based blockchains

These connections would represent passive revenue streams based on transaction fees exchanged for security and availability — both of which the Agent possesses.

The Future of Blockchains and IoT

Perhaps the future will be more fragmented than previously imagined. Perhaps blockchains will become more specialized. As dapps acquire network effects and scale, it may be more efficient to run dedicated proof-of-stake networks that keep properly pruned state tries/blockchains and periodically checkpoint state onto the Ethereum main net.

I have long held the belief that IoT devices will be the main actors on blockchain networks. Perhaps they will secure these chains as well. With Casper and state pruning, the resource demand for network maintainers may drop so significantly that even small IoT devices may be capable of maintaining the networks.

This would be an exciting future for Grid+ because we could offer our customers many more passive revenue streams. After all, this is what Ethereum is all about — returning value to individuals. None of these developments are set in stone and there is plenty of work to do, but I’ll admit that this future is not unimaginable. If the Casper multiverse comes to be, I, for one, will welcome our Agent overlords.