Ekta Blog Posts

 
 

How Web3 streamlines and drives environmental projects

In its early days, Web3 received heavy criticism for its impact on the environment. Until “The Merge” in September 2022, Ethereum was estimated to use as much as 78 terawatt hours of electricity annually. Switching to a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism is anticipated to drastically reduce the mainnet’s energy consumption, ushering in a new era of blockchain technology for the crypto giant. And even though the spotlight was firmly on Ethereum for making this switch, it’s not the only, or the first, blockchain project to change course and implement environmentally-conscious business practices. In fact, there is a wide-ranging ecosystem of blockchain projects solely focused on environmental issues, conservation initiatives, and climate change.

The foundation for most of these projects is based on regenerative finance or ReFi, an economic model that has become firmly rooted in many Web3 ventures.

What is Regenerative Finance — ReFi

Refi is one channel through which these companies are taking on environmental and socio-economic issues. It is the Web3 amalgamation of regenerative economics and decentralized finance and is highly effective in the fight against climate change. As the name implies, regenerative economics focuses on business practices that aim to rebuild and restore rather than exploit and deplete. Through ReFi, it’s possible to fast-track climate action by circumventing politics and bureaucracies, and allowing both businesses and individuals to freely participate in charitable initiatives.

An example of such a project, is Ekta’s blockchain game, MetaTrees.

MetaTrees — Web3 Environmental Gamification

A major area of concern that ReFi and Web3 can make a positive impact on, is deforestation. Currently, it’s estimated that over 15 billion trees are cut down each year. Ekta’s approach to combating this loss of natural resources is through its self-developed blockchain game, MetaTrees. MetaTrees aims to bring great gaming mechanics and sustainable tokenomics to the blockchain gaming world. And through gamification and strategic partnerships, MetaTrees can spearhead reforestation initiatives and incentivize VCU purchases. To kick off its in-house reforestation initiative, Ekta has dedicated a section of land on Ekta Island to plant fruit trees, which will also serve as an additional food source for local communities.

Regarding partnerships, MetaTrees is in the process of teaming up with One Tree Planted, a global reforestation charity that plants one tree for every dollar donated. Crypto is a major donation avenue for the charity since crypto donations are both tax-deductible and a non-taxable event, which, according to the charity’s website, means that you don’t owe capital gains tax on the appreciated amount.

With blockchain technology powering projects like these, participants and players have full transparency of the activities, helping to build confidence and trust, something sorely lacking with traditional ventures.

Total transparency for full accountability

Another method through which Web3 technology can help drive change is by ensuring participants are fully informed of fund allocations and activities. Blockchain technology accomplishes this through two integrated characteristics; decentralization and immutability, meaning transactions cannot be altered or concealed. This level of transparency means that participants can see how much of their donations or purchases actually go towards these initiatives and helps hold organizations accountable for their actions (or inactions).

Blockchain technology is helping environmental efforts succeed in a myriad of ways, and we’re curious to see how quickly organizations will adopt the technology for this purpose. To learn more about these projects, click on the links below:

  • MetaTrees — https://metatrees.io/

  • One Tree Planted — https://onetreeplanted.org/

  • Ekta — https://www.ekta.io/

Tell us about a Web3-powered environmental project you’re passionate about or what your predictions are for the intersection of blockchain and environmentalism.

Why Ekta opted to use Proof-of-Authority over Proof-of-Work or other consensus mechanisms

Blockchain technology is fast gaining mainstream traction, allowing for the development of new ways to apply the tech to our everyday lives. We’ve seen this with the novel application of NFTs to real-world industries like real estate and even the hospitality industry. But to understand how we got here, we need to look at the foundation of the blockchain, in this case, specifically EktaChain.

Established in Q4 of 2021, the Ekta team wanted to go with the most up-to-date consensus mechanism (aka consensus protocol or consensus algorithm) for the foundation of their blockchain. Initially, Proof-of-Stake showed a lot of potential, but then they found Proof-of-Authority. The tech was so new that many people had never heard of it before. So why did the team consider this to be the best consensus mechanism and how does it compare to Proof-of-Stake and Proof-of-Work?

What is a consensus mechanism?

For the blockchain to accurately store and distribute data (like cryptocurrencies), participants have to determine ownership and the right conditions of the system. A consensus mechanism is the means by which the blockchain nodes control and regulate this system, keeping it secure from hackers and preventing bad actors from committing fraud or double-spending.

There are a number of consensus mechanisms all with the sole purpose of securely regulating the blockchain, but for this article, we’ll be focusing on the following:

  1. Proof-of-Work

  2. Proof-of-Stake

  3. Proof-of-Authority

Proof-of-Work (PoW)

PoW was the world’s first true consensus mechanism and has been widely used in the blockchain industry. The consensus mechanism requires crypto miners to compete in solving mathematical problems with the first to do so, receiving the right to update the blockchain and a predetermined amount of crypto. The name stems from the massive amount of processing power the system needs to complete each transaction. Despite having a reputation for being highly reliable, PoW consensus mechanisms have some obvious and unsustainable scalability issues due to their energy-intensive nature.

Proof-of-Stake (PoS)

The PoS consensus mechanism presents solutions to many of the issues that PoW currently faces and focuses on improving speed, efficiency, and overall scalability. With PoS, instead of participants mining, the blockchain implements validators who “stake” crypto to earn the right of validating a new transaction. Once the validation is complete, a set number of competing validators vouch for the block’s accuracy until the required amount of verifications is reached. Next, the network updates the blockchain and distributes crypto-based rewards to all participating validators.

PoS is a more environmentally friendly alternative to PoW and is deemed to be more secure against hacks. Its primary criticism stems from the fact that the more you stake, the higher your chances of becoming a validator, a system that’s believed to carry the risk of becoming more centralized.

Proof-of-Authority (PoA)

Proposed by Ethereum cofounder Gavin Wood in 2017, PoA is an adjusted version of the PoS consensus mechanism and requires very little computing power. Where validators stake their cryptocurrency with PoS, PoA requires nodes to stake their reputation, meaning that they earn the right to become a validator by passing a preliminary authentication. With Ekta’s focus on environmental issues, implementing a PoA consensus mechanism was the obvious choice. But PoA also holds many other benefits. Thanks to its 16 validator nodes, EktaChain (Ekta’s native mainnet) offers speed and performance without sacrificing security. The consensus mechanism allows for a high transaction rate as authorized nodes generate blocks in sequence at fixed intervals.

To learn more about Ekta’s blockchain foundation and tokenomics, visit https://resources.ekta.io/ekta-whitepaper-v2/, and join our weekly Twitter Spaces and Discord for up-to-date information.

MetaTrees — bringing real-world utility to the play-to-earn gaming world

In 2017, the blockchain world experienced a new way through which crypto could supplement people’s incomes, with the introduction of play-to-earn (P2E) games. The idea that players could earn real-life rewards by playing games served as a novel twist to the traditional game industry, in which companies and publishers sell new titles and in-game assets to players. Over the past four years, these P2E games gained popularity with crypto-savvy gamers and players looking to build passive income. However, this newfound popularity exposed scalability and inflationary issues with several popular blockchain gaming titles. But despite these growing pains, the Game-Fi industry continues to grow, with many players being able to earn a durable passive income stream or living wages solely through P2E games.

When the Ekta team decided to develop an original P2E game, one stipulation (other than allowing players to earn) was that the game needed to deliver real-world utility. Until now, the P2E industry has been focused only on the monetary earnings of players and developers.

But Ekta saw a new opportunity — MetaTrees.

MetaTrees is a blockchain game world that connects the virtual world with the real world. Through MetaTrees, Ekta aims to incentivise environmental protection through tokenization and gamification. By utilizing the play-to-earn model and transforming it into a PLANT-TO-EARN model, players can help to protect the natural world while also earning digital assets.

The idea of MetaTrees was born out of an inherent sense of responsibility towards our natural world and humanity’s future. While researching ways to connect the world we live in with the virtual world, the Ekta team found that the narrative around global environmental degradation always leads back to the question; “Why do people destroy the environment and what can we do to change this behavior?”

According to David Attenborough’s documentary and witness statement “Life on our Planet”, human impact on the environment has spiraled out of control. Attenborough states that humans log as many as 15 billion trees annually. Other sources reveal that wild fish populations are in steep decline due to overfishing (it’s estimated that up to 2.7 trillion fish are caught each year), and experts believe that between 0.01% and 0.1% of all species on earth become extinct each year. It’s safe to conclude that the real problem is rooted in economic systems that have led humanity, for generations, to establish values that are not aligned with the natural ecosystems we are dependent on.

So, Ekta decided to take a step towards changing the value society places on natural capital like trees. Through MetaTrees, Ekta can initiate real-world change by tokenizing natural assets such as trees and land. Players start by planting, protecting and caring for the virtual trees in the MetaTrees game-world. As players progress in the game, they will start to develop sustainable, organic agriculture and fisheries, build new communities, incubate advanced technology initiatives, and more. By playing the game, users can earn digital assets and verified carbon units (VCUs). Every VCU earned symbolizes a one-tonne reduction or removal of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. This is accomplished through Ekta’s partnerships with environmental and reforestation projects.

The main focus of the game will be to rethink societal values, redefine the way we live and restore the natural world to create a society that has a symbiotic relationship with nature.

If you’re interested to learn more about MetaTrees or partner with Ekta on this project, visit the website or join us on Twitter or Telegram. Together, we can change the value society places on the natural world, and through blockchain technology, we can bring this change to people everywhere.

Join us and become a guardian of trees.

Discover Ekta Island — The world’s first blockchain island

In 2013 on a stormy day, Ekta CEO Berwin Tanco discovered Gili Gede, an island off the coast of Bali, Indonesia. Now in 2022, Ekta owns 16 hectares of land on Gili Gede and 46 hectares of ocean in the island’s bay. This land is currently being developed to become Ekta Island, the world’s first blockchain island. Nine years after first coming across the island, it seems as if the storm guided Berwin to discover this gem in the Indian Ocean.

The day started out crisp with blue skies all the way to the horizon. Berwin had set sail early that morning, careening around coral reefs and islets. Around midday, the sky began to grow dark, gray clouds hanging heavy overhead and angry waves snapping at the boat hull. Searching for a place to wait out the storm, Berwin navigated the vessel around the tip of an unfamiliar island, where suddenly, the waves grew still, and the wind settled down.

The skipper waited out the storm in the pocket of silence, eventually meeting the island’s generous and friendly locals and learning its name, Gili Gede. He was so impressed with the islands’ location and natural marina that he bought some land. Five years later, he owned all the land for sale on the island, and within another three years, he had locked down one of only 20 marina licenses in Indonesia.

The original idea was to develop a standard, five-star hotel. But then COVID hit. The world changed. Ekta was born.

By tying the island to blockchain technology, the possibilities of what this island could be suddenly became limitless. Berwin and the Ekta team went back to the drawing board, reimaging their ideas and making them bigger. Finally, they were able to map out a plan for Ekta Island.

As the world’s first blockchain island, the goal is to focus on luxury, eco-friendly real-estate developments and make them available for purchase through Fractionalized-NFTs (FNFTs). These developments will include:

  • 81 villas

  • 200+ honeycomb pods

  • 285 super yacht berths

  • A beach club

  • A yacht club

Ekta Island’s economic infrastructure will be based on cryptocurrency principles. The goal is to make everything on the island available for purchase using crypto and NFTs, from fractions of the villas to yachts and groceries.

With its proximity to Bali, Ekta Island is ideal for a quick weekend getaway. But this little paradise promises to be more than just a holiday destination. Future plans include building a blockchain school and incubator hub with more dreams being transformed into tangible ideas as you read this.

To get in early and receive discounts on all Ekta projects and products, be sure to get your hands on the Ekta Portal NFT, your key to unlocking crypto rewards and all of the Ekta Ecosystem.

Go to www.premint.xyz/ekta-portal/ to whitelist now.

Can NFTs be Sustainable?

Although NFTs have been around since 2014, these blockchain assets only started to gain mainstream adoption in 2021 when celebrities like Stephen Curry and Eminem changed their Twitter profile pictures to Bored Ape NFTs. Today, everyone, from world-famous tennis players like Serena Williams to your Joe next door, wants to know why someone would pay $600,000 to own a rainbow cat meme.

While these NFTs are popular for their unique nature, they’ve also received criticism for the environmental impact mining (a process of adding data of a digital file to the blockchain) has on the planet. This was a problem that Ekta was acutely aware of when the company was first established, and the team was determined to find a sustainable, long-term solution.

We’ve compiled a complete guide that explains how NFTs work, elaborate on the aspects that make NFTs harmful to the environment and share solutions that can make NFTs more sustainable.

What are NFTs?

To understand what a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is, you first need to understand what it means for an asset to be “fungible”. If something is fungible, it means it can be replaced with another item in the same category without changing its value. For example, a $1 note is a fungible asset. If you trade a $1 note for another $1 note, you will still have a note with the same value.

NFTs, on the other hand, can’t be replaced by any other png, mp3, or mp4 file. It consists of the digital public record of transactions that tracks the NFT each time it’s sold or bought.

How NFTs work

In simple terms, if you own an NFT asset, it means you own rights to a unique collectible or art by an artist. Since we can’t stop people from making digital copies of an image, video, or audio file, owning the NFT is equivalent to owning an original painting while copies are similar to replicas or cheap poster prints. NFT assets can be traded, but this is not the case with copied NFTs. This is due to the fact that the ownership of a copied file can’t be changed without the permission of its current owner, leaving the file with no value.

To put things into perspective, digital artists make NFTs through a process called “minting”. During this process, the artist generates a unique code that represents the asset on the blockchain and tracks every time the asset is sold, bought, or traded, along with the details of current ownership.

At the moment, most NFT marketplaces use the Ethereum blockchain, so when someone buys an NFT, the buyer deposits ETH, which includes the price of the NFT plus service fees known as “gas fees” to the current owner or the marketplace. The seller then receives this NFT in their digital wallet and the gas fees go to the network to confirm transactions on the blockchain. However, Ekta will soon be launching the Ekta NFT Marketplace, an affordable, environmentally friendly alternative to current products available on the market.

What makes NFTs harmful to the environment?

Mining is an essential part of circulating and recording NFT transactions into the ledger (a centralized database that allows all users to access information regarding the transaction). Validating transactions and minting new crypto tokens forces systems to solve complex problems using energy-intensive computers. This adds a new block of verified transactions to the decentralized blockchain.

These operations require copious amounts of resources and power. Chris Precht, a well-known personality specializing in creating ecological architecture, calculated the energy usage of 100 copies of three of his NFTs and concluded that they consume the same amount of electricity as a European household in two decades.

Currently, platforms like Ethereum and Bitcoin use a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm that consumes a large amount of energy to do the minting. And as the price of ETH increases, so do the gas fees — increasing the total number of transactions on the PoW system. Companies that strive to maximize profits by switching to cheaper electricity like fossil fuels are worsening the overall environmental impact of NFTs.

Are environment-friendly NFTs possible?

Does this mean NFTs can never be sustainable?

The answer is no. As blockchain technology evolves, new alternatives are becoming available allowing companies to pivot towards more sustainable alternatives. Here are two solutions that can help create environment-friendly NFTs:

Solution #1 — Create a second layer on top of blockchain

One solution that can help reduce the environmental challenges associated with NFTs is to create a second layer or Layer 2. This would allow users to transact outside of the blockchain and batch-process the transactions all in one go.

“For example, an auction could be entirely held off-chain on Layer 2, and then be submitted to the blockchain as batches. This is a solution that can be implemented more short-term” explains Susanne Köhler, a PhD fellow and sustainable blockchain technology researcher at Aalborg University in Denmark.

Solution #2 — Use the Proof-of-Authority (PoA) model

Although the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm is one of the most reliable methods that major cryptocurrencies use, it’s not scalable as it offers limited performance in terms of transactions per second (TPS).

This is because before a new block gets added to the blockchain, it needs to be verified and approved by the majority of the network nodes. PoW slows down the entire process and limits its potential to be used on a large scale.

This is where Proof-of-Authority comes into the picture. Proof-of-Authority (PoA) is the latest consensus algorithm that offers fast performance and high fault tolerance and Ekta’s choice consensus algorithm. With PoA, only the nodes, which are referred to as “Validators”, with high authority can generate new blockchain on the platform. This may require them to pass an automated preliminary authentication stage where validators run software validating all the blocks before adding them to the blockchain.

Since PoA relies on only a few block validators, it’s a highly scalable system that pre-approves participants before having them make any transaction. This way, unless the risk is beyond 51%, PoA benefits from high-risk tolerance and sustainable, fast transactions.

Solution #3 — Donate profits from NFTs to carbon credits:

The third solution to reduce the environmental impact is to donate a set amount of profits made from NFTs, to carbon credits or contribute to projects that are improving the environmental footprint.

Final thoughts

It’s clear that although NFTs have received criticism for their environmental impact, the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry is constantly evolving, unlocking new opportunities to apply the technology in more sustainable ways. We now see that there are new solutions to help make NFTs more sustainable like switching up the production process and being mindful about how we use the profit. And in true Ekta tradition, we’ll continue to search for long-term solutions that benefit humanity and our natural world as a whole.

Ekta Real Estate F-NFTs — Bringing real-world assets on-chain

At Ekta’s core is the concept of connecting the physical world (in other words, the world we live in) with the digital world of blockchain. By doing this, our team was able to conceptualize a way of tokenizing real-world assets such as real estate and land, thus taking NFTs and giving them a purpose for everyday people.

For those of you who are still new to the crypto space, here’s a quick intro to NFTs:

  1. NFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens, are digital assets that are verifiably one-of-a-kind. Like snowflakes, no two NFTs are the same.

  2. Similar to other crypto tokens, users can buy and sell NFTs.

  3. Ownership of NFTs are verifiable, as the proof of ownership is stored on the blockchain

The most recent evolution of NFTs has been in the digital art world, where digital assets, turned into NFTs, have become collector’s items.With the emergence of NFTs, the digital blockchain world took another step into the future (even though CryptoKitties and Logan Paul Pokemon cards weren’t exactly what we had envisioned the next generation would inherit from us).

However, if there’s one thing we’ve learned from the blockchain, it’s to always be prepared for new innovations. And that’s exactly what happened when Ekta started to take shape.

How does it work?

Ekta has been collaborating with real-estate developers in Bali, to tokenize their physical, real-world assets and make them more accessible to people around the world. However, due to their one-of-a-kind properties, NFTs can be too costly for all but the wealthiest of users.

To further increase access for all, Ekta has created fractionalized NFTs called F-NFTs (fractionalized non-fungible tokens).

Unlike traditional NFTs that are singular in nature, each F-NFT is broken up into a number of smaller NFTs, making them more affordable and allowing more people access to physical assets.

What are the benefits of owning Ekta Real Estate F-NFTs?

Ekta Real Estate F-NFTs open up a world of possibilities for everyday investors. Users can buy into tokenized real estate at accessible prices, thanks to fractionalized NFTs. In doing so, they can generate passive income through rental returns and the appreciation of property prices, without the high costs typically associated with real estate ownership. In addition, transactions are safe and secure while fees remain low.

Ekta’s collaborations with K-Club and Finns Bali also gives users access to property on the pristine island of Bali. Through Ekta Real Estate, you can enjoy this stunning part of the world at discounted prices.

But it doesn’t stop there. Ekta’s F-NFTs can also represent forests, protected land, or coral reefs — basically anything in the real world. And by tokenizing these natural assets, we get to protect them and help nature heal.

Where can you buy Ekta Real Estate F-NFTs?

To whitelist for Ekta Real Estate NFTs, visit realestate.ekta.io and to learn more about Ekta’s mission and vision, read the whitepaper here whitepaper.ektaworld.io

If you’re interested but still have questions, please feel free to reach out to us at: info@ektaworld.io

Ekta Portal - Plug and earn your way to Web3

The world’s first plug and earn endpoint node that rewards users with crypto. Simply plug it in, and start earning passive income

The blockchain industry has a reputation for being complicated and intimidating to anyone who isn’t crypto-savvy. But that’s all about to change with the Ekta Portal.

Meet the Ekta Portal mini PC

The Ekta Portal mini PC is a powerhouse of environmentally friendly crypto magic that makes generating passive income as easy as plug and earn. In a crypto-first, the innovative new Ekta Portal is a preprogrammed device that allows holders to serve as endpoint nodes in the EktaChain network. As a reward for these endpoint node services, holders can earn $EKTA tokens every day*.

Activate your device with Ekta Portal NFTs

To activate your Ekta Portal, you would need an Ekta Portal NFT. These stunning NFTs are inspired by the beauty of our natural world. By using aerial photos of vast landscapes, we’re able to create unique and striking pieces of art as an ode to Mother Nature. As one of the first NFTs with true functional utility, the Ekta Portal NFT allows you to connect your Ekta Portal to a digital wallet through a browser interface. Once connected, you can start to earn passive income in the form of $EKTA tokens.

Reward system and tokenomics

To ensure long-term sustainability, Ekta Portal token rewards will be released linearly at a rate of 10,000 $EKTA per day. This number will remain constant, regardless of how many Ekta Portals are operational.

This means:

  • If 100 Ekta Portals are operating, users will receive 100 $EKTA per day

  • If 1,000 Ekta Portals are operating, users will receive 10 $EKTA per day

  • If 10,000 Ekta Portals are operating, users will receive 1 $EKTA per day

To elaborate further, this means that if the price of $EKTA is $1, this means:

  • If 100 Ekta Portals are operating, each will deliver 100 $EKTA = $100 per day USD value

  • If 1,000 Ekta Portals are operating, each will deliver 10 $EKTA = $10 per day USD value

  • If 10,000 Ekta Portals are operating, each will deliver 1 $EKTA = $1 per day USD value

From the numbers above it’s clear that the earlier you start participating in this project, the more you’ll be able to cash in on the rewards system. But this device offers even more utility in addition to passive income. Owning an Ekta Portal also gives you access to the Ekta Ecosystem and future flagship NFT offerings like Ekta Island NFTs and MetaTrees NFTs.

Ekta Island

Ekta Island, a key project on the Ekta roadmap, is a blockchain-powered island off the coast of Bali brought on chain in the form of Ekta Island NFTs. Developments for Ekta Island are ongoing, so stay tuned.

MetaTrees

Another project unlocked by the Ekta Portal is MetaTrees. This plant-to-earn game gives players the chance to earn crypto while also spearheading reforestation initiatives in the real world through the project’s partnerships with verified carbon unit (VCU) organizations.

And if you’re worried about your carbon footprint, we’ve got great news. The Ekta Portal mini PC form factor uses up to 75 times less power than other node programs that require desktop PCs, ensuring environmentally friendly functionality.

Final thoughts

In conclusion, there’s no doubt that the Ekta Portal is bound to shake up the blockchain industry. Ekta is constantly exploring new ways to make blockchain technology more accessible for wider audiences. And this is exactly what the Ekta Portal aims to do. With its user-friendly interface, the Ekta Portal simplifies access to Web3, allowing anyone, anywhere to become a participant. To learn more about this pioneering blockchain product, visit the Ekta Portal website here and join EktaChain’s Twitter account to stay up to date on all the latest developments.

Don’t miss out on your chance to be at the forefront of the blockchain revolution.