GreenTrust

Revolutionizing Renewable Energy Certification with Blockchain and Zero-Knowledge Proofs

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Lightency is a team of experts in deep technologies committed to making renewable energy accessible and combating climate change. We aim to utilize new technologies to drive a green transition with significant economic and social impact.

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Key Partner

Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Barcelona, Nexus Energía is a leading player in the energy sector, renowned for its commitment to renewable energy and sustainability. With over 20 years of experience, Nexus Energía supplies 100% certified renewable energy and manages the energy needs of both small and large businesses. They represent more than 16,700 renewable energy producers and manage over 14 TWh of energy annually.

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Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Features
• Architecture Overview
• How It Works
• Demo Vide
• Installation
• Usage
• Challenges
• Future Work
• License
• Contact

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Introduction

GreenTrust is a blockchain-based platform developed by Lightency that streamlines and secures the issuance of Guarantees of Origin (GO) for renewable energy. By leveraging evolvable NFTs and Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs), GreenTrust ensures transparency, data integrity, and client privacy throughout the GO lifecycle.

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Features

• Evolvable NFTs: Dynamic tokens representing GO certificates that update their status throughout the lifecycle.
• Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs): Maintain client privacy while ensuring data integrity without exposing sensitive data.
• Automated Issuance Process: Daily cron jobs verify certificates against EMS data and handle the issuance process.
• Manual Verification Option: Issuers can manually verify and issue certificates without accessing private data.
• Audit Mechanism: Auditors can approve or reject certificates, ensuring compliance.
• User Dashboards: Customized interfaces for demanders, issuers, and auditors.

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Architecture Overview

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How It Works

1. Demand Phase

• Request: Energy consumers or brokers request a GO.
• NFT Creation: An evolvable NFT is automatically generated with a status of In Progress.

2. Issuance Phase

• Automated Verification:
  • A cron job compares NFT data with EMS data using ZKPs.
  • If the data matches, the NFT status changes to Issued and is transferred to the demander.
  • If the data doesn't match, the NFT status changes to Rejected.
• Manual Issuance:
  • Issuers can verify certificates via the dashboard without accessing private data.
  • They receive verification keys and proofs to confirm the certificate's validity, as the ZKP circuit is made publicly available.
  • Issuers can initiate the issuance process of a certificate via their dashboard.

3. Audit Phase

• Review: An auditor reviews the certificate.
• Status Update:
  • Changes status to Audited if approved.
  • Changes status to Rejected if discrepancies are found.
• Rejection Protocol:
  • If rejected and unchanged for 30 days, the NFT is burned.
  • If updated, the NFT returns to In Progress for re-verification.

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Demo Video

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Challenges

Sponsored Transactions:

• Issue: Wallet limitations prevent the implementation of sponsored transactions.
• Attempted Solution: We developed a custom method that uses transaction simulation to estimate gas fees and ask the user to sign a transfer transaction to send us the amount of the gas fees and return it if transaction fails. This method was effective for single transactions but challenging for batch transactions.
• Current Status: Pending updates from wallet providers.

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Future Work

• Implement Sponsored Transactions: Enable demanders to sponsor gas fees seamlessly.
• Improve User Interface: Enhance user experience across all dashboards.
• Integrate a Marketplace: Create a platform for trading Guarantees of Origin.

Business Expansion:

Onboard Nexus Energía:

• A leading energy company in Spain, supplying 100% certified renewable energy.
• Manages over 16,700 renewable energy producers and 14 TWh of energy annually.

Onboard STEG:

• Tunisian Company of Electricity and Gas.
• Aims to expand renewable energy certification in Tunisia.

Global Outreach:

• Explore opportunities with additional major energy players to promote renewable energy worldwide.

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Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18 or later)
• npm or yarn
• Git
• Python (3.10 or later)
• snarkjs
• MongoDB

Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/greentrust.git
cd greentrust

Install Dependencies

Frontend

cd frontend
yarn
#or npm

Backend

cd backend
yarn
#or npm

ZKP

cd ZKP
yarn
#or npm

Python

cd python_scripts
python -m venv venv
venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

Usage

Start the Frontend Server

cd frontend
yarn dev
#or npm dev

Start the Backend Server

cd backend
yarn start
#or npm start

Start the ZKP Server

cd ZKP
yarn start
#or npm start

Python Script

Run this script only once when testing to migrate dummy EMS data into the database, make sure to change the code in upgrade.py file with the corresponding dummy data file path.

python upgrade.py

Environment Variables

Frontend

Copy the .env.example file in the root directory of the frontend folder, rename it to .env and fill the environment variables as explained in the file.

Backend

Copy the .env.example file in the root directory of the backend folder, rename it to .env and fill the environment variables as explained in the file.

ZKP

Copy the .env.example file in the root directory of the frontend ZKP, rename it to .env and fill the environment variables as explained in the file.

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details

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Contact

For any questions or inquiries, please contact us:

• Email: contact@lightency.com
• Website: Lightency
• LinkedIn: Lightency on LinkedIn