The Web3 Power of a Trillion-Dollar Market Underpinned by Solana and IoTeX

Helium Mobile’s “unexpected” rise has shown domestic users a different Web3 world. In countries where telecommunications operators are state-owned enterprises, signal towers can be deployed even in the most remote areas, covering most areas except for those rarely visited. However, in capitalist countries, relevant enterprises are private, and signal coverage tends to prioritize cost-effectiveness, resulting in low signal coverage in many areas, providing ample space for “distributed mobile networks.”

Helium mobile hotspot (Source: Nova Labs)

Similar to telecommunications operators, energy is not purely state-owned enterprises in many countries, which provides the possibility of commercial opportunities throughout the energy lifecycle. Elon Musk’s concept of a “virtual power plant” is one such application. Starpower also sets its sights on the energy track, hoping to provide Web3 solutions for this field.

DePIN infrastructure for global energy networks

A virtual power plant is a system that aggregates and coordinates distributed energy resources such as distributed power sources, energy storage systems, controllable loads, microgrids, and electric vehicles through advanced information and communication technologies and software systems. It acts as a special power plant participating in power market and grid operation through power coordination management systems. The virtual power plant has functions similar to those of a power plant but without traditional factory buildings, hence the name “virtual power plant (VPP).”

Currently, the integration of virtual power plants into power system planning, operation, and market participation is limited, leading to their development being hindered. In traditional virtual power plant models, challenges faced by incentive mechanisms mainly include:

• Limited participant rewards, lack of effective mechanisms to provide attractive rewards to participants;
• Complex participation structure, technical barriers, and cumbersome administrative procedures make participation difficult;
• Inconsistent compensation models - compensation usually does not match the actual value of the energy or resources contributed by participants;
• Moreover, the compensation model may not adapt well to changes in market conditions, resulting in dissatisfaction among participants and reducing their motivation to continue participating.

Against the backdrop of a huge market scale and obvious mechanism flaws, Starpower provides a Web3 solution combining physical equipment, blockchain, IoT, and AI.

Overall, Starpower’s keywords are VPP and environmental protection. Starpower hopes to serve as the “hub” of the household electricity network, which is difficult for current VPP providers to enter due to cost and other issues. On the user side, optimizing user electricity usage through smart devices reduces carbon emissions on one hand and obtains data on the other. This allows VPP providers to provide the best power supply efficiency based on electricity usage data after the “hub network” established by Starpower matures and connects to large VPP providers.

Starpower plans to launch its first product, the Smart Plug Starplug, in the first quarter of this year. This product is plug-and-play, capable of accessing household electricity data, and ensures the authenticity of real-world data through Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) while protecting privacy. As the first product, Starplug not only helps users understand household electricity usage for better planning but also aggregates electricity usage from thousands of households to provide data support for future VPP networks to ensure rational power supply and distribution.

Starpower stated that it is collaborating with Uber’s machine learning algorithm team to achieve more efficient energy use and scheduling through AI.

With the data in hand, Starpower’s next step is to introduce the household energy storage battery Starbattery, which can help users reserve some electricity for emergency use when there is sufficient generation and stable power supply. In addition, Starpower also plans to introduce products such as electric vehicle chargers in the future.

In the future, Starpower hopes to connect household appliances to the Starpower network through hardware or software, initially forming a large network, and then connecting to clean energy power plants and large-scale energy storage devices to form a truly distributed VPP network. As Starpower puts it, “Starpower is the information hub between global Distributed Energy Resources (DER) and local VPP service providers. Starpower collects DER data from around the world, provides comprehensive analysis to VPP service providers, enables them to efficiently conduct power transactions and management in local power grids, optimize resource allocation, reduce energy costs, and potentially promote the large-scale application of renewable energy. Starpower enhances grid intelligence, improves energy efficiency, promotes fine operation of the power market, and achieves win-win economic and environmental benefits.”

Team and Tokenomics

Starpower boasts a “star-studded” team, with its two co-founders, Laser Ding and Dr. Darcy Jia. Laser Ding, as former Assistant Chairman of HashKey Group, had participated in numerous Web3 projects before. Dr. Darcy Jia is a scholar who obtained a Ph.D. in Photovoltaics and Renewable Energy from the laboratory of “World Solar Father” Professor Martin Green at the University of New South Wales.

As mentioned earlier, the “Web3 solution combining physical devices, blockchain, IoT, and AI” is evident in Starpower’s project design, where we have seen the involvement of physical devices, IoT, and AI. The remaining component is blockchain. Like most DePIN projects, Starpower will incentivize participants through on-chain tokens and settle its VPP network in real-time via blockchain according to its blueprint.

It’s worth noting that Starpower has received capital support from both the Web3 and new energy sectors. Investors (institutions/individuals) include Escape Velocity, IoTeX, Bas1s, Fenbushi Capital, HashKey, Helium Foundation, Solana Foundation, Arweave, Plug and Play, and REDEX. Supported by the mature blockchain infrastructure of Helium’s DePIN network Solana and the blockchain specifically developed for DePIN IoTeX, along with the support from decentralized storage network Arweave, Starpower will be a very “Web3 Native” solution.

In Starpower’s plan, whether it’s the designed Starplug, Starbattery, or future devices that can be accessed by the network through smart hardware or software, they will all earn token rewards through daily operations. Starpower states that by providing substantial financial incentives through the STAR token, directly rewarding participants who contribute energy resources to the network, it attracts more people to participate. Secondly, tokenization simplifies the participation process, lowers the entry barrier, and allows more participants to easily join the virtual power plant network. Lastly, the dynamic adjustment of the value of STAR tokens can sensitively respond to market changes, ensuring the fairness and attractiveness of compensation, thereby incentivizing continuous participation and driving network growth.

In terms of token allocation, 15% will be allocated to the core team, 15% to investors, 7% to the foundation, 5% will be donated to non-profit organizations dedicated to addressing climate change issues, 3% will be used for airdrops, and the remaining 55% will be distributed to builders who contribute to the network established by Starpower.

Recent Highlights of Starpower

During the evening and early morning hours Beijing time, Starpower launched the “Pioneer Pass” NFT Free Mint, which caused the website to crash shortly after the minting began due to high traffic. As of 2 p.m. today, the floor price of the NFT has exceeded 2 SOL, with a total transaction volume exceeding 1800 SOL. Holders of this NFT can engage in “soft mining” for 100 days and earn Nova points, which can be used to redeem the project’s token $STAR in the future.

Additionally, Starpower will be one of the main guests at the DePIN Meetup at the upcoming ETH Denver, where it will discuss the current development status and future blueprint of DePIN together with IoTeX and others. Meanwhile, Starpower will also join the first phase of the IoTeX Incubator Program, becoming a globally focused DePIN project incubated by and cooperated with IoTeX.

A few years ago, the market might not have bought into the above stories, but the widespread application of Helium and Helium Mobile has made DePIN more than just a “story.” As Web3 solutions in storage, computing, and IoT fields gradually gain acceptance in the market, even grand narratives have the opportunity to truly interact with physical industries. Starpower, focusing on the energy track, is an opportunity worth paying attention to and exploring.

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