September 14th, 2018, was quite the day, here at Restart Energy — the Beta released one day ahead of schedule, we held an informative and expansive livestream, our RED community was extremely engaged on Telegram, giving us a large volume of feedback & questions; all of this on top of the day to day runnings and goings on of one of the most successful energy companies in Romania, that is trailblazing blockchain solutions in the energy sector.

While all this was going on, our CEO, Armand Doru Domuța, still managed to find the time (at 10pm, mind you) to enlighten the community regarding his vision and plans for the future of Restart Energy Democracy.

Here’s what he said:

Dear Good People of the RED Community,

I have noticed there are quite a few concerns and I would like to answer them.

First of all, I am aware that our communication could have been much better. At the same time, there are many developments behind the stage that affect a project’s timeline and strategy. In our case, everything that happened lately was for the benefit of the project and token holders.

The RED Platform is a new business ecosystem and the systems behind the platform are very complex. That means constant adjustments to the technical part, but also keeping in sync with the business part.

A normal development process starts with the business analysts that send specs to the CTO and System Architect, who then divide this into daily tasks for the dev. team. In our case, it’s much more difficult, because we also have to constantly ask for, and monitor, feedback from the market, as this is a new business ecosystem that we want to succeed.

We had hundreds of iterations in the last 8 months in order to reach this point, and right now we have a “real” blockchain solution that is ultra-scalable and provides the layer of decentralization and security that the platform needs. As far as I know, and we studied solutions developed by Enerchain and others, it’s the only blockchain that can be used to register real-time readings from wireless meters in a cost-effective way, without giving in on security; and there is more here — we discovered a natural evolution to our business ecosystem that is meant to make the platform more easily deployable in other countries, by incorporating features that energy suppliers like Restart, like us, want because of the high degree of regulation of energy markets.

There are just 2 ways of making a scalable business: A) Sell a product or service that is installed after the distribution meter by the user that doesn’t involve any special permission in a plug and play manner. B) Create a system that suppliers will want to use for the added value it brings to their customers and business.

Right now we are doing both, because the fastest way to have the RED Platform up and running in more countries is to have more suppliers on the platform — and suppliers want more customers, more volume, higher profits… while at the same time we need to lower the price for consumers and increase the revenues for producers.

We will achieve this by having a unique ecosystem deployed that makes onboarding new customers a breeze, that lets the customers of existing suppliers pay in crypto without the supplier taking the exchange risk, that gives access to their consumers to buy energy directly from their producers. As the supplier is the entity that will account in the final energy invoice for the transactions done on the platform, we want suppliers to have all the reasons to join.

If we want our platform to succeed, we need to have more faith. Our team is made of fantastic people that don’t have the word failure in their vocabulary and that will succeed in delivering a cutting-edge technology that is meant for mass adoption. In our podcast today I spoke about the importance of getting more users on the app and building public awareness. I think we all agree that a new customer of the platform that joins our Telegram chat will want to see a positive, interesting discussion.

RED Community member: Transparency I think is the main issue. Obviously, we don’t expect daily updates but a little more insight into developments on the platform would go a long way for morale in the camp.

Armand: You are absolutely correct!

I will never complain about the hardships of finding the right team and about having them work together well. I can only say that now we have a Triple-A Team!

Our CTO and Lead Architect will start giving you daily feedback.

Just to let you know from behind the scenes, Vali is one of the top 3 blockchain developers in Romania right now, and he is working tirelessly on our platform. That is the reason we were a bit out of focus this morning — didn't sleep the last couple of days. :)

RED Community member: At present, the portions of the platform (energy trading, KWT tokens, and token exchange) that concern a lot of us are being underexposed. Instead, the new mining kits and referral components are being showcased. Is that signaling a shift in direction or development?

Armand: There is no focus shift here. The focus is the platform.

The SWAZM blockchain is custom built for RED, the solar kits, the wireless meters, and mining rigs all work together in an integrated system!

That doesn't mean we've been sleeping in our pajamas regarding the core functions of the platform.

We have a PLAN! And it’s a simple and effective one: 1) Referral App. 2) Supplier Switch Module and Consumer/Producer Accounts in Oct in sync with the start of the Electric Tour (PS in partnership with Renault). 3) Blockchain Wallets & Trading/Exchange System and integration with Restart CRM & Wireless Meters, through API. New features will be released every two weeks from now on.

RED Wireless Meter

Because the average age of energy consumers in Romania is 60+ years, it’s very important to find the right pitch angle for the platform.

So this is why it’s important that all the elements are in place.

And that the entire system is scalable in a way that the customer just signs a piece of paper and receive home the wifi meter, the solar with installer all financed by BRD and working on the RED Platform.

The entire EU is the same… average age is 55+, 60+.

When we say that you can sell or buy energy from your neighbor we want to stay true to our word.

The whole idea behind any disruptive innovation is to reduce friction.

Our vision is to “restart” the way people think, create, use and send energy: By reducing bureaucracy. By allowing anyone to send and receive energy with two clicks. By allowing anyone to become a producer.

Sure, you can find parts of the solution on the market BUT there is no integrated system so far that really brings added value to consumers. There is no way to buy energy directly from producers, no way to see your consumption in real-time (without spending 200–250 Euros), no supplier that will accept settlements (even partially) based on your own meter, no easy way to become a producer and sell your energy, no solution for the excess energy besides expensive batteries.

Our Value Proposition is simple: Join RED, take control of your energy, buy from who you want, start producing, have real-time access to data. It doesn’t cost you anything — all you need to do is sign here.

And to make this simple, there are a lot of logistics, procedures, PR, and IT involved.

RED Community member: My last concern is SWAZM. From our end, we don’t really have evidence of past successful projects. Do you have anything to inspire more confidence that you’d be willing to share? (The app is nice, but doesn’t seem to require a decentralized backend at this time.)

Armand: I’ve seen instant 4K streaming with a lousy 3G connection using SWAZM.

We already have our own SWAZM containers and access to the backend. I know Vali is about the smartest person in blockchain in Romania right now. He has a brilliant mind and already found good solutions to many blockchain-related questions.

My job is to make sure that this Community and this Team sticks together and delivers a mind-blowing platform and I need all your support!

Now we have a running referral app — let’s use it wisely and as often as possible! :)

RED Community member: Well Armand, perhaps you had to delay your dinner, but this was a good catharsis. Have a good rest!!!

Armand: Thank you; but we will not sleep until we get this right!

We’ve been fighting Euro-eating energy dinosaurs for 3 years and growing every day in their backyard. Even if the road is a little twisted and bumpy that won’t stop us!

RED Community member: I sent a question about some energy retailers in Australia that have their own plants etc and do give 18 percent off already. Plus, if they see RED as a threat, they might give even more discounts. Would that affect the penetration here?

Armand: Depends. We want to position RED as the technology provider and work with local Australian companies for deployment and help them gain market share. Even if a supplier owns a power plant, it cannot escape grid charges. So the 18 percent can only be related to active energy, that is roughly 35–45% percent of the invoice.

It’a great tool for a supplier to be able to focus it’s human resources on forecasting and balancing, rather than sales, marketing, and customer relations, while relying on the RED Platform for onboarding customers, invoicing, payments, etc.

Plus, by delivering an integrated hardware + software solution to their customers, helping them save money and produce energy, they will have a competitive advantage over the competition.

We are hoping that the global crypto community will start buying power from RED-affiliated suppliers and pay for it with MWAT, of course. That is another clearly defined market segment.