Decentralized marketplace EFFORCE launches public sale of Steve Wozniak-inspired Genesis NFTs to implement two energy efficiency projects

EFFORCE, a marketplace for decentralized and democratized funding for energy efficiency efforts including trading energy-saving credits, announced the public sale of its first Energy Efficiency NFTs batch. These NFTs, inspired by EFFORCE co-founder Steve Wozniak (Apple co-founder), will help the company set up a new era for energy efficiency projects with the help of the crypto community.

The EFFORCE vision rests on introducing a new breed of utility NFTs, founded on the novel ‘Proof of Contribution’ concept. The Genesis NFTs are part of the Energy Efficiency NFT effort and are a tool used to implement improvements required to make companies more energy efficient. In this era of climate change and ESG, meeting expectations to consume less energy is paramount.

EFFORCE will initiate the sale of 2,500 Genesis NFTs per project. The first project is a 180 kwe Combined Cooling Heating and Power Plant. It is part of an undisclosed company’s efforts and will operate over 8,000 hours per year to cover the company’s cooling/air conditioning needs. Additionally, it will self-produce 1.4 GWh/year in electricity. The price per NFT is 210 USDC. Users need to lock 400 WOZX for each mint. Moreover, the project has projected rewards of 735.000 mWOZ

Project number two is an EEP (Energy Efficiency Project) for an undisclosed company that will provide 60% of its electricity needed for a sewage treatment plant. It will also provide heat to a sludge drying plant, reducing up to 80% of the weight of the disposable sludge. That project has expected rewards of 665.000 mWOZ. The NFT price for this venture is 190 USDC and requires locking 380 WOZX tokens per mint.

EFFORCE co-founder and former Apple engineer Steve Wozniak, said: “EFFORCE is focused and working hard completing the objectives and vision put in place when we founded it. From today forward anyone will be able to work with the community and directly support Energy Efficiency projects. Improving Energy Efficiency equipment, their structures, drastically reducing energy consumption and the impact on the world environment. Most important everything will be done through a completely decentralized and transparent system thanks to the blockchain.”

EFFORCE Managing Director Paolo Pastore adds: “Using NFTs as proof of contribution to energy efficiency projects allows us to create a new market, keeping those contributions liquid as long as there is demand for them. This was not possible before: funds deposited would have been locked for the whole project duration with no chance of getting them back before the end. Now, by selling an NFT, contributors can easily move out from their position”

Contributing to Energy Efficiency Projects is reserved to WOZX token holders willing to lock their tokens for the whole duration of the project. Locked tokens generate rewards coming from the 1% of platform savings generated by the approved Energy Efficiency Projects. Rewards are proportional to the number of tokens locked.

Every EFFORCE NFT is a proof of contribution NFT with utilities attached, providing holders with rewards coming from saved energy by the company which got the contributions. Moreover, the Genesis NFT lets holders partake in a private sale phase for new projects published on the platform. NFT holders can reserve an amount of NFTs equal to the number of Genesis they hold. Plus, they gain discounts on WOZX use, including staking/using less WOZX to mint future NFTs.

Pastore adds: “We decided to deploy our smart contracts on Polygon to avoid high gas fees, which would have been a major bottleneck for the whole ecosystem.”

The NFTs issued by EFFORCE draw elements from co-founder Steve Wozniak’s inspiration. The artwork will be revealed after the actual implementation of the project, coinciding with the NFT staking contract going live on the network. Both of the current projects will have at least one unique artwork and several rare/super rare creations.

After the companies implement their requested change, a staking contract will go live on the blockchain. That contract yields mWOZ tokens (mWOZ represents 1 USDC of saved energy) equal to the rewards generated by energy savings per month. Users can convert mWOZ to USDC through a different on-chain contract.

There is a minimum APR of 8% for up to 40% after five years. As a result, a minimum of 1.4 million mWOZ tokens are distributed to NFT stakers if the Genesis NFT mint sells out.

EFFORCE commits the full amount required to kickstart the implementation and secure the project. Unsold NFTs will be removed from the market and burned. Rewards tied to EFFORCE’s capital will be kept by EFFORCE and allocated to other energy efficiency projects.

Founded in 2018, Malta-based EFFORCE  is the first platform created to leverage the power of blockchain technology to democratize access to energy efficiency projects. Co-founded by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Jacopo Visetti, Jacopo Vanetti and Ken Hardesty who have more than a decade of experience in this field, EFFORCE believes in a world where sustainability actually generates outsized benefits without consumers needing to change their energy behavior.