Powered by Ethos Partner with Manifest

Building a brand that changes the world: Ethos to partner with Manifest to build a global community of advocates.

Powered by Ethos (Ethos) is partnering with unified brand communications agency, Manifest, to support the brand’s development, launch and growth across the globe.

With a mission to ‘build brands that change the world’, Manifest was the perfect partner to help support Ethos’ objective of driving greater awareness and adoption of Web3 ClimateTech solutions. United by their shared ambition of building a more sustainable future through innovation, Manifest’s experience of creating purpose-led brands and building passionate communities of advocates will ensure Ethos’ positive message can reach and inspire more people around the world.

While Web3 technology has the potential to revolutionise the energy sector, it is still a relatively new and complex concept that can be difficult for many people to understand. Manifest will be supporting Ethos to develop clear and impactful campaigns and messaging that educates consumers and investors alike, encouraging them to join the Ethos community.

Dave Burrells, Ethos COO and founder commented: “Getting more people to understand the potential of Web3 Climate Tech solutions is key to driving a greater adoption of sustainable technologies and accelerating the transition to a more renewable energy system. Manifest has a wealth of experience in developing purpose-led brands and campaigns that resonate with people globally, so we’re thrilled to have them onboard as partners.”

Alex Myers, Manifest CEO and founder commented: “Manifest’s mission is to build brands that change the world, so we jumped at the chance to partner with Ethos and share its ambition to build a more sustainable future for all. The potential for Ethos to drive a seismic shift in how we produce and consume energy is huge, and we’ll be working together to build a global community of advocates who will be at the forefront of that shift.”

Why Decentralised Renewable Energy?

Decentralised renewable energy (DRE) investment is an essential aspect of transitioning to a sustainable energy future. DRE refers to the use of renewable energy technologies, such as solar panels, wind turbines, and small hydroelectric plants, in decentralised systems that can be both independent of traditional centralised power grids, or funded via decentralised investment products. Some of the reasons why DRE investment is crucial include:

Energy Access

DRE investment can provide energy access to remote, off-grid communities that have little or no access to electricity. According to the International Energy Agency, around 800 million people worldwide (10.1% of the planet’s population) lack access to electricity, and DRE investment can help to address this issue. By investing in decentralised renewable energy, Ethos can provide clean, affordable energy to those who need it the most.

Resilience

DRE investment can improve the resilience of energy systems by reducing reliance on centralised power grids that are vulnerable to disruptions caused by natural disasters, cyber-attacks, or other threats. In South Africa where Ethos’ first renewable energy projects will launch first, there are 250 days of blackouts expected this year. Decentralised systems can continue to function even when centralised power grids fail, providing critical energy supply in emergencies.

Economic Benefits

DRE investment can stimulate local economic development by creating jobs and supporting local businesses. In addition, decentralised renewable energy systems can provide energy cost savings to households and businesses, particularly in areas where electricity prices are high. On the flip side, just by keeping the lights on in South Africa this year, it would represent nearly a $13 billion boost to the economy.

Environmental Benefits

DRE investment can contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate change by displacing fossil fuel-based electricity generation. By investing in DRE, Ethos can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and transition to a more sustainable energy future.

In summary, DRE investment is an essential aspect of transitioning to a sustainable energy future and plays a crucial part in solving climate change. It can provide energy access to those who need it the most, improve the resilience of energy systems, stimulate local economic development, and contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Ethos is well positioned to become a leader in this industry and a key facilitator in the investment of decentralised renewable energy.

Powered by Ethos — Regulatory Approach

At Powered by Ethos (Ethos) we take consumer protection very seriously. As part of our core principles, we take a consumer first approach, and ensure we are always operating with first class regulatory conduct. This enables us to instil trust, built on integrity.

To this end the Ethos Renewable Asset (the “NFT”) will be issued by a Gibraltar limited liability company (LLC). The Issuer is erring on the side of caution and considering the NFT to be a security for the purposes of the Financial Services Act 2019 of Gibraltar (the “FS Act”) and Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 (as applied in Gibraltar)(the “Prospectus Regulation”).

To begin with, the offer of the NFT will be pursuant to section 346A of the FS Act which provides that an “offer of securities to the public made in or from Gibraltar is exempt from the obligation to publish a prospectus under Article 3 of the Prospectus Regulation if the total consideration of the offer is not more than €8,000,000 calculated over a period of 12 months.” (an “Exempt Offering”).

1. The issuer is erring on the side of caution and considering the NFT to be a security for the purposes of the FS Act and the Prospectus Regulation

2. The NFT is a derivative. It’s value is dependent on an underlying asset, in this case the value of the real-world asset (solar panel)

3. The issuer of the NFT will be a Gibraltar LLC

4. Due to the initial size of the offer of the NFTs (i.e. less than €8,000.000), pursuant to section 346A of the FS Act, the issuer is exempt from the requirement to publish a prospectus under Article 3 of the Prospectus Regulation. The issuer will however issue an offer document which will include details on the issuer, the NFT, the risks associated with it, how its value is determined, etc.

5. The NFT will be linked to a real-world asset and as such its value will be dependent on the value of yield generated from the associated real-world asset (solar panel). There will be no pooling of assets and no joint ownership of the real-world asset (solar panels). All real-world assets will be owned by the issuer of the NFT.

6. The Offer Document will take about 4–6 weeks to be drafted

7. The issuer will need to register as a VASP with the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (the “GFSC”) and employ an MLRO in Gibraltar as part of the VASP registration process

Once Powered by Ethos is operational, our intention is to expand the project further and as such it is likely that the offer will increase to more than €8,000,000. To that end we will begin work on the Approved Prospectus route.

1. This will replace the Offer Document and is needed once the total offer of all Powered by Ethos NFTs reaches €8,000,000

2. The Prospectus will need to be approved by the GFSC

3. All other requirements are the same as the Exempt Offering

As you can see, from the outset we are committed to holding our business and products to the highest standards, and conducting ourselves in a manner that promotes transparency, integrity, and resilience. We believe this is the only way a business should operate, which is why we want to start things as we mean to go on.

Fiducia Integrita — Trust built on Integrity

Ethos Renewable Assets — Why Blockchain?

A typical question that is raised with a lot of projects, companies, and products, is ‘why blockchain?’ This is a fair question, a lot of blockchain projects I have come across don’t need blockchain. One of the classics that sticks in my mind was the Long Island Iced Tea company who in 2017 changed their name to Long Blockchain Corp and released a statement saying it was:

“shifting its primary corporate focus towards the exploration of and investment in opportunities that leverage the benefits of blockchain technology”

You make iced tea! Come on!!?? Regardless of the lunacy, the stock jumped 200%.

On the other side of the coin in the early 2000s we had the introduction of the Cloud, people were worried about data security, high expenses, accessibility, and generally losing control. In the end, none of these fears came true and nowadays we don’t think about whether a company is on the cloud or not, we just get on with utilising their services.

I want to clear up these two points when it comes to Powered by Ethos (Ethos) and our use of blockchain. A lot of education is needed in this space so I am sure this will not be the last time I bring this subject up.

So why is Ethos using the blockchain and NFTs?

Liquidity

Ability to easily use the Secondary Market and decrease ownership transfer time — Transferring rights to financial or physical assets can be time consuming and admin intensive. This normally involves a lot of paperwork, with signing and countersigning, and multi-day settlement periods. By using an NFT as the rights to the underlying assets’ value, simply transferring the NFT to another person’s wallet, also transfers the rights to the value of the underlying asset. In addition, the transactions are done instantly and transparently, as the ledger is updated automatically.

No 3rd Parties

As it is a decentralised system, no intermediary fee is required — As the NFTs can be transferred privately between to people, there is no need for lawyers, brokers or other expensive third parties to be involved.

Auditing

Improves ease of auditing the product — As the blockchain is fully transparent and immutable it is the perfect accounting tool. By using the blockchain to process these transactions, we are creating a fully holistic audit trail that anyone can view.

Anonymity

Although anyone can view the transactions, privacy issues are addressed on the blockchain by anonymizing personal data and using permissions to prevent access. No personal data is held on-chain. There will be KYC and AML checks completed on our customers but none of this is held on-chain or in public view.

Compliance Costs

Reduce compliance costs — NFTs and the blockchain are immutable. There is not a more accurate way of being able to demonstrate a fact, than being able to show the data, the history, and the origination, than can be done on-chain.

Metadata and IoT

Easily record metadata for associated real-world assets — The NFTs are associated with real-world assets like solar panels and wind turbines. These assets collect a lot of data. We will be creating a dashboard in-app that displays this data but we also want to add the data to the NFT so you can see exactly what the real-world assets associated with your NFT are doing. Every time you connect your wallet to the Ethos dApp, the Internet of Things (IoT) data from physical assets will sync with your NFT. This will provide you with an up to date record of the assets’ performance, that can be viewed directly in your wallet.

So as you can see from the above, there are many benefits to Ethos using a blockchain in the underlying technology.

Blockchain delivering ‘Real yield’ to harness the power of climate tech

To my second point mentioned in my opening statement where I referred to the cloud, I want to allay some fears and correct a few clichés. What we are doing at Ethos has nothing to do with altcoins or your typical cryptocurrency business. Yes, we are using the same technology but the technology is not the thing to fear. Many large and reputable companies that you are probably already using are working with blockchain technology, these include:

• Barclays Bank

• British Airways

• DHL

• Siemens

• Visa

There is nothing evil about this technology, there is nothing unsafe about this technology. Blockchains do not hurt people, people hurt people.