When Christwin first had the idea to build M3tering protocol, he envisioned a protocol that utilised incentives to encourage solar installations in Africa. Later on we discovered that aside from incentives, there were other blockchain features that the African energy sector could benefit from. It's why M3tering protocol has transformed to become a community-driven blockchain network. Today, M3tering protocol’s core mission is ensuring that solar energy is more accessible and affordable in Africa through decentralisation.

Going forward, this article does not cover the entire aspect of M3tering protocol and leaves many technical gaps. If you're interested in the somewhat technical documentation of M3tering protocol and its intricacies, read the white paper here.

In many developing regions, solar energy is expensive to own outright and this negatively affects how energy providers offer solar energy solutions. In Nigeria for example, many solar providers struggle with low sales because of how unaffordable solar energy is to energy consumers. To address this issue, energy providers turned to other business models such as solar lease, pay as you go, and instalment payments. You’d think this reduced the barrier to owning solar in the country. It didn’t.

Solar energy capacity in Nigeria only increased by 10% in the past two years, despite growing by 2700% in the last 10 years. Contrary to popular beliefs, solar investments in Nigeria – despite not being sufficient – have increased over the past few years. This points out a common issue in traditional systems; there is no transparent and decentralised way to account for every dollar spent in building solar energy projects, thus leaving gaps for corruption in the system and potentially affecting the relationship with foreign support groups. In the long run, this may lead to a decrease in solar investments in the country.

Therefore, using Nigeria as a case study for the rest of Sub Saharan Africa, there is an urgent need to increase transparency throughout the process, from funding a solar energy project down to monitoring its energy output. Moreso, there's an equal need to increase the trust in our local systems so as to attract foreign investments that can help alleviate energy poverty on the continent.

Studying these energy problems in Africa and developing modern systems to solve them encapsulates the mission of M3tering protocol.

M3tering protocol employs a unique approach to tackle the aforementioned problems. For most parts, the protocol involves two distinct parties – the energy consumer and the energy provider. These two parties interact on the protocol just like they’d do in the real world, but with the added functionalities of the blockchain and binded by a smart contract. This implies that functions such as electricity billing, payment, and access are all coordinated on the protocol without any third-party interventions. This is made possible with a blockchain-powered smart meter, Maxwell.

To encourage the adoption of solar energy, the protocol rewards energy providers with token incentives based on the energy output of their live solar projects. Since many solar energy providers in Africa switched to business models that limit profitability and the ability to build new solar projects, M3tering protocol aims to maximise their profits using the Proof Of Impact model. This mission extends to nonprofits aimed at driving the adoption of clean energy in Africa.

The incentive system is not unique to M3tering protocol and is common with popular DePINs such as Helium and DIMO. In our case, it would motivate energy providers to increase their energy output by developing new solar projects for consumers. This will also attract new solar providers to the protocol, thus creating a flywheel effect known as the DePIN flywheel.

In addition to adopting the DePIN flywheel, M3tering protocol employs coordination mechanisms to ensure the smooth operation of the protocol. We recently launched M3tering DAO and have initiated a bi-cameral governance system to strengthen the community’s power over the protocol. Learn more about this and more in our discord.

This topic comes up a lot. Most times in conversations with people in traditional/Web2 ecosystems. They'd ask, “Why do we need to adopt blockchain and its features for energy solutions?”

The simple answer is, we need to reduce trust gaps in energy financing and maximise the opportunities in clean energy adoption. 

There is so much backroom politics that go into international funding and the development of solar projects in Africa. Apart from media announcements and photoshoots, we have no clue how billions of dollars invested in Africa's solar energy sector have been spent in the last 10 years. The traditional system is purely centralised, creating gaps for corruption and mismanagement of funds, and leaving billions of people globally without access to clean and affordable electricity. In addition to that, blockchain and the vast Web3 resources leads me to believe that this is our best chance against global energy poverty and climate change. This is potentially the best opportunity to involve the global population in our local infrastructure challenges and create rewarding, trustless systems. 

To sum it up, decentralised energy is needed in Africa. This modern concept will help reduce the effects of corruption and politics in decision-making and management of funds while increasing trust and promoting coordination with foreign bodies and the global community to help drive the goal of equal access to clean and affordable energy.

M3tering protocol initially launched on Gnosis chain and is now live on Arbitrum chain with plans to be accessible on EVM-compatible networks. The protocol hosts six solar energy projects (and counting) in Nigeria. We are expanding fast and making an impact across the continent with plans to host solar projects from South America.

Join our community of energy providers and solar enthusiasts in weekly community calls and contribute to the progress of the protocol.