For someone with a husband, two kids, three jobs, and a massive fluffy marshmallow for a dog, crazy is expected...but fire? That’s somewhat of a new one🙃 And yet, the hills surrounding my home just outside Denver are ablaze. We were in the early stages of pre-evacuation last week, but now, it seems like the frontlines are at least a bit more under control. The “crazy” is also the main reason I haven’t been able to respond to some of the lovely e-mails and comments I’ve gotten. I do truly, truly appreciate the feedback and will be responding soon!
Let’s continue along the “crazy” lines with a technology that most of us have probably heard of but don’t know much about: the blockchain. I’ll cover some basics, so we can start to wrap our arms around it a little. Then, we’ll take a look inside solar.
Sarah Compton
Editor, Enspired
Blockchain Basics
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At its third grade, most-fundamental level, blockchain is a digital ledger stored on a distributed database—a database that stores data and runs on multiple machines.
Where are the blocks, and where are the chains? Theblockchain stores a network of decentralized and distributed data in blocks and links these blocks together to form a chain.
Blocks are records with a specific capacity, and each contains a unique stamp of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data. Think of it like a receipt.
Once filled, a block is closed and linked to the previous block. Any new information is compiled into a newly filled block.
Pros and cons of blockchain:
Immutability. Data can’t be erased nor replaced on the blockchain. Us geoscientists know this can be good and bad. Some data needs to be changed and updated, but other data needs to be archived and protected.
Transparency. All data is visible to anyone on the network. Again, we know this can be good and bad. Often in geoscience workflows, data are hidden to improve focus, not due to some nefarious agenda.
Traceability. There’s an irreversible audit trail, so changes are easily tracked. Truthfully, aside from the space required for this and potential for data clutter, I see only upside here.
Speed, performance, and implementation cost. Keeping all that data and running all those checks comes with costs along many spectrums including energy, time, and resources (monetary and physical).
How can we use it? Blockchain has some exciting applications in cryptocurrency, fractional ownership and asset tracking, and potentially in the energy trading sector. While its application to geoscience-specific workflows might not be universally applicable yet, it’s an emerging player in the tech scene worth keeping an eye on.
Dig deeper: Because we’re geoscientists and that’s what we do, I found great information for this article here and here. Oh! And a bit of info on distributed databases was found here.
A message from NVIDIA
NVIDIA Accelerates CCS by 700,000x
A new approach to carbon capture and storage (CCS), powered by NVIDIA AI, enables scientists and engineers to accelerate CCS modeling by 700,000x with Fourier Neural Operators (FNO).
Imagine there’s no recharging. It’s easy if you try. No cables below us. No batteries inside. (Yes…you have to sing this to the tune of John Lennon’s Imagine.) One last lyric:
Imagine if your indoor electronics could be powered with solar technology, bringing the power of the outside inside.
That’s what Swedish firm Epishine is trying to do using solar panels that work in low light indoors. And as if that weren’t a tall order, their small solar cells aren’t silicon-based: they’re carbon-based.
Carbon is less resilient than silicon, so carbon-based cells don’t make much sense outside, where they’d be exposed to weather and the like, but they’re well-suited to a more stable indoor environment.
The firm’s website wasn’t too clear about their carbon sourcing, but it’s not hard to envision carbon-capture sourcing or perhaps lab-grown organics.
Either solution has running room to employ geoscientists: we’re all too familiar with finding, extracting, and utilizing carbon.
Industry applications: It’s easy to see the simplification and reduced energy footprint this tech can bring to the office, but the field stands to benefit also.
Reducing energy needs in the field can have big impacts on site logistics.
Reducing cable needs and layouts can increase safety, even if it’s mostly in the doghouse or data van.
Reducing battery needs increases sustainability and reduces onsite waste.
Energy in all forms: This effort seems greater than a “little bit” and could have real and wide-reaching impacts for the immediate end-user and downstream supply chains.
Keep watching: Epishine was awarded EU funding to print their solar panels. You can find more information here.
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