During a tour of France, entrepreneur and long-time Bitcoinner Nicolas Cantu presented Bitcoin-based solutions at conferences to companies seeking significant resilience on digital and energy transition. Together, let's come back to 2 use cases allowing us to appreciate why Bitcoin is presented as a means and a model of resilience.
Bitcoin for business resilience
At the beginning of December, we had the opportunity to attend one of the conferences presented by Nicolas Cantu in Toulouse. The founder of 4NK, known for being a long-time French Bitcoiner, made a tour of resilience solutions linked to Bitcoin that he sets up with his company.
These different use cases of Bitcoin can provide significant added value in digital technology and the energy transition to companies that decide to make them their own. The goal: to help them prepare as best as possible for possible crises, to ensure continuity in complicated times, and to rebuild with complete peace of mind after the storm.
👉 Our guide to buying Bitcoin (BTC) easily and quickly
Furthermore, the current phenomenon of hypercentralization of powers, ecological planning and resources requires companies to become more and more resilient. Indeed, the rigidity of institutions, over-regulation and dependence on centralized decisions slow down innovation, lead to failures and make systems vulnerable.
This is why, to come to the rescue of companies seeking resilience, 4NK offers them to think about Bitcoin. “ Whether we like it or not, Bitcoin is a network without a central body, a kind of neutral and stable ground that develops faster than anythingand which is used by 400 million people around the world, » explains Nicolas Cantu.
Bitcoin presents itself as one of the networks the most secure in the world, with distributed operation and decentralized infrastructure. “ To protect against increasingly present cyber risks and possible state attacks, Bitcoin can play a structuring role. This is why we put the means and models of digital, monetary and energy resilience of Bitcoin at the service of businesses, » insists the founder of 4NK.
Open an account on Binance, the world's #1 crypto platform
A Web5 solution offered to businesses to achieve digital resilience
One of the aspects of 4NK is oriented towards the supply of technological bricks based on Bitcoin and the security that the network can offer.
In recent years, Nicolas Cantu, and more broadly 4NK, has adopted the concept of a “Web5” solution. He defines it as follows: “ Unlike Web3, which completely decentralizes processes via paid blockchains, Web5 aims to make processes and data verifiable without fees or specific tokens for users “.
The Web5 approach based on Bitcoin proposed by 4NK and Nicolas Cantu
One of the examples highlighted by Nicolas Cantu concerns the solution imagined by 4NK for secondary real estate bond markets. It is here an alternative to cloud storage for notaries, with secure, confidential and authenticated data distributionwhile ensuring timestamping and validation without the constraints of traditional blockchains and smart contracts.
In this way, Bitcoin allows to limit dependence and interference from external organizations at the operational, practical, economic level and in the choice of integrated solutions such as payment methods. This is why 4NK integrated Bitcoin as a distributed proof network in his solution:
We offer a smooth, Nostr-like Web 5.0 system with decentralized exchanges, where users are masters of their data, the payment method they wish to use with the same experience as the current Web, without the complexity of wallets and tokens, nor the limits of blockchains.
💻 Learn more about Nostr, the protocol dedicated to decentralized social networks
Through its Web 5.0 solution, 4NK offers a distributed network with varied functionalities which can be adapted to the needs of the companies using it: message relaying, sharing of services, anchoring of evidence or even data storage. “Bitcoin, as a distributed proof network, is present in our solution in order to verify that what was supposed to happen was done correctly and in complete safety,” specifies Nicolas Cantu.
Ledger: the best solution to protect your cryptocurrencies 🔒
Supporting communities and farmers in their ecological transition thanks to Bitcoin
What is methanization? Towards the use of biogas for cryptocurrency mining
In another register, Bitcoin can be a way for companies and institutions, more particularly agricultural stakeholders and communities, to finance their ecological transition. In order to limit the emission of methane into the atmosphere, farmers and agricultural companies use of the methanization process.
Concretely, the waste producing a large quantity of methane is heated, stirred, and deprived of oxygen in order to optimize their degradation. If the residue, called digestate, can subsequently be used as natural fertilizer, the process also frees biogas which can be used to produce energy. This will be used to reduce the high energy costs of agricultural operations.
If a large part of biogas makes it possible to operate methanization sites, this is generally produced in too large quantities. This is why Nicolas Cantu and his teams found a solution to exploit this surplus in order to create new sources of income for communities and farmers:
We know that the energy consumption for mining Bitcoin is considerable. We know that to be profitable, only renewable energy surpluses are possible.. However, sites for the methanization of waste from wastewater treatment plants must regulate their stock of biogas. This is why we imagined using this gas as energy to power mining centers necessary for timestamping the states of our evidence networks.
💡 Also read – Bitcoin: mining, energy consumption and ecology
Get paid to preserve the environment
4NK goes even further than this simple idea with his ORESIL project. With the support of Véolia and Suez, the company has developed a prototype of a decentralized micromethanization station for agricultural stakeholders. Thus, farmers can optimize their costs and respond to the societal challenges of areas with water difficulties while optimizing waste treatment.
Everything happens in 2 steps. Initially, the station will treat sludge and grease from wastewater treatment plants in order to produce water, but also methanogenic material. Here it is pasteurizationa thermal process aimed at eliminating harmful micro-organisms, which is applied to this waste. These are subjected to a temperature of 70°C for 8 hours.
This prolonged heating allows the water present in the sludge and grease to evaporate, which is then collected by a condensation system. “The sludge, grease and sand treated by wastewater treatment plants contain 70% water and 30% methanogenic material (except for sand) that it is possible to treat for agriculture and use in methanization» continues Nicolas Cantu. This water can be used to respond to water stress situations experienced by farmers, and thus achieve water self-sufficiency.
The second stage is therefore based on the methanization process previously explained. Carried out continuously at 55°C, methanization transforms methanogenic materials into biogas, whose methane can be transformed into energye.
Knowing that 1m³ of biogas corresponds to 2.4 kWh of electricity, the treatment of 1m³ of waste will make it possible to produce up to 180 m³ of biogas, or 430 kWh of electricity. For comparison, this quantity of energy corresponds to the electricity consumption of a French household over a period of 10 weeks.
€20 offered when you register on Bitvavo
Bitcoin as a means and model of energy and environmental resilience
To complete all this gear, infrastructures allowing Bitcoin mining are installed not far from the micromethanization station. These calculation machines are made entirely of aluminum, which greatly facilitates their recycling, and can be turned on and off depending on the production of biogas.
Furthermore, these machines which use a lot of energy dissipates the electricity used into heat. Part of the water treated by the pasteurization process helps cool the machine and at the same time heat the water. The latter will then be used to power a boiler in order to provide hot water to homes, for example.
⚡ How does Bitcoin (BTC) mining influence the energy sector?
Thus, farmers who have adopted Bitcoin as a means and model of resilience generate income by recycling their waste, treating their wastewater and seeking to reduce their carbon footprint.
“ For agricultural stakeholders, there is a double possibility: either they decide to keep their Bitcoins (BTC) in order to build up cash flow allowing them better financial sovereignty, or they decide to sell their Bitcoins directly in order to make their energy surplus profitable, » explains Nicolas Cantu.
In view of the growing issues at the water, energy, geopolitical, economic and digital levels, these 2 use cases prove that Bitcoin can be a plus for the proper functioning of the institutions and companies that adopt it. Well exploited, this initiative shows us that Bitcoin allows to meet some of the major challenges of our time in terms of cybersecurity, energy and monetary stability.
Don't miss the bullrun, join our experts on Cryptoast Academy
Advertisement
The #1 Crypto Newsletter 🍞
Receive a summary of crypto news every day by email 👌
Some links in this article may be affiliated. This means that if you buy a product or register on a site from this article, our partner pays us a commission.
Investments in cryptocurrencies are risky. There is no guaranteed high return, a product with high return potential involves high risk. This risk-taking must be in line with your project, your investment horizon and your capacity to lose part of this savings. Do not invest if you are not prepared to lose all or part of your capital
Surprised by the rise of crypto-assets at the end of the 2010s, I began to closely follow this sector which fascinates me to the greatest extent. When I'm not in football stadiums, rugby stadiums or handball halls, I work on writing relevant articles around cryptocurrencies and more broadly, Web3.
Zacharie Tazrout
251 items
