Company Announces Divestment Of Texas Retail Energy Business

March 11, 2021

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Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com

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GridPlus announced that, "out of necessity, [we] have divested our retail energy subsidiary."

GridPlus said that it is, "dedicating 100% of our effort and resources to becoming the leading blockchain hardware security and privacy company."

"The repercussions from the collapse of Texas’ deregulated energy market make it clear that the blockers faced by that business were a matter of regulation and systemic market problems rather than technological innovation," GridPlus said

Referring to the recent Texas weather event, GridPlus said, "An unresolved resettlement process and political fallout that will take months to resolve exposed our subsidiary, GridPlus Energy, to tremendous risk and uncertainty. There was only one logical choice to be made in response to these statewide issues: sell the subsidiary in order to dedicate resources to the part of the business that was growing and thriving."

"We are anticipating a massive consolidation of the Texas retail electricity market as well as a shift towards onerous regulation that would prevent execution of our original intelligent real-time energy payment system. We are seeing early estimates that nearly all non-generating retail energy companies will be going out of business with the overall pool of approximately 60 servicing entities dropping by 75%," GridPlus said

GridPlus has launched its Lattice1 programmable hardware wallet, and described its renewed focus on its core competencies in blockchain, cryptography, and privacy tech signals as follows:

"The energy roadmap focused on using the Lattice1 to make the legacy grid more efficient, but this could only ever happen at scale. A single retail energy provider cannot fix systemic issues on its own. While we may be shifting away from energy as a use case, the core part of the original vision is still intact: bridging the physical world and mainstream use cases with the digital world of Ethereum and the broader blockchain ecosystem," GridPlus said

"The Lattice1 remains the most capable tool available to support blockchain energy applications and we are excited to see how third parties will put it to use to bring their goals to fruition in other markets," GridPlus said

"We set out to establish a new standard for hardware blockchain security for a world in which digital assets are an integral part of all of our daily lives. Not long ago widespread adoption of this technology seemed like hyperbole, but now it’s inevitable. When the first hardware wallets were made, few could have even imagined the DeFi and NFT booms that have resonated with a global audience," GridPlus said

"Our initial plans focused on using the Lattice1 hardware (originally dubbed the “smart agent”) to be used in a variety of real-world applications such as serving as a point of sale terminal, a blockchain staking node, and our initial showcase application: making our legacy energy grid more efficient," GridPlus said

"Since we began work in 2017, the blockchain world has completely transformed and it’s certain that this evolution will only accelerate. A singular GridPlus focus on crypto will drive faster development in far more promising areas. In particular, this opens up a new world of possibilities with Phonon Network which will allow users to securely transfer their existing digital assets off-chain with the properties of cash," GridPlus said

"A key part of our initial plan was integrating an L2 scaling solution to support the transaction volume required from mainstream use cases. We originally planned on using state channels, but we arrived at a unique solution that opens up possibilities we did not originally anticipate," GridPlus said

"Phonon Network is an open-source standard that uses secure hardware to let you transact off-chain with crypto just like cash: fast, free, and private," GridPlus said

"What came from a search for a practical scaling solution has turned into a Crown Jewel of the project. Beyond the immediate applications for low cost transactions and privacy, Phonon is blockchain-agnostic which means it can serve as an interstitial layer between different blockchains or between L1s and L2 implementations. This opens up a world of possibilities for those overseeing the system, such as a linearly scalable private cross-chain decentralized exchange," GridPlus said

"We’ve been dedicating resources to accelerate the implementation of the specification and we’re incredibly excited for users to experience just how powerful a tool this is first-hand," GridPlus said

"The GRID token will be coupled with the open-source Phonon standard which will finally endow it with a powerful global use case and allow the community to take the reins on a technology that transcends GridPlus’ individual efforts," GridPlus said

"An independent DAO will be established to govern Phonon using the GRID token. Participants will set the parameters for the system and do as they see fit with fee revenue from wrapping assets to be transferred off-chain and resettlement back onto the base chain," GridPlus said

"Phonon is being developed in a way that ensures it can be used securely with third party hardware. The goal is decouple Phonon and the GRID token from GridPlus and pass ownership to the community so that the standard and the token can flourish on their own," GridPlus said

"If you are among the GridPlus Energy customers that redeemed GRID for access to wholesale rates, we’ve got you covered: we’re already in the process of reimbursing you for your unused balances," GridPlus said

"Our renewed focus on our team’s core competencies in blockchain, cryptography, and privacy tech signals a brighter future for GridPlus, the GRID token, and all Lattice1 owners. We’re grateful for the support of our rapidly growing community and excited to have you along for the ride as the hardware business takes off this year," GridPlus said

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