The Solar DePIN Project: Carbon Smart Meter

[grantshares-dapp]

Abstract

Our goal is to scale a hardware native DePIN protocol that anchors real world impact with tokenized infrastructure. We would like to consider integrating Neo as our initial rewards token to miners to diversify treasury exposure, assist with smart contract codifying and generate protocol native yield from bridged assets. For us this would ensure sustainable funding for smart meter distribution, installer rewards and ecosystem growth without relying on extractive tokenomics being true to the decentralized nature of Defi.

Proposal Information

Description

Carbon Smart Meter is a clamp on hardware device that logs solar output and converts it into rewards for the user and potentially certifiable carbon offsets. It’s designed for installer grade deployment with no panel access, and integrates a blockchain layer for timestamped verification. Each meter becomes a node in a decentralized energy network, enabling ESG aligned offset generation across residential and industrial solar systems.

Millions of people and businesses with solar panels get no extra money for the clean energy they produce, especially in locations where grid buyback programs are non-existent or being scaled back.

These users charge phones, lights, or batteries  but the kWh they generate just disappears once used. No rewards, no proof, no income.

We fix it:

Activate our $199 mini retrofit adapter into our 30W Portable Solar Panel → charge device → Login to our web app, start tracing offsets and start earning rewards for every kWh of sunlight, sent straight to your wallet.

Plug in our $650 retrofit kit to a compatible inverter system such as the Tesla Powerwall 3 home battery & inverter kit.

Login to our web app, start tracing offsets and start earning rewards for every kWh of sunlight, sent straight to your wallet.

Result:

• Users: Turn sun into income (even on beaches or balconies)  
• Planet: More solar used = less diesel = lower CO₂  
• Network: 1M panels = 3M tons CO₂e/year → $1M+ in airline offsets annually

We are choosing to lead with product first so as to build a community around the project.

Motivation

I had a friend mention it would be worth applying even for the sake of getting the project in front of the community. We have boot strapped everything to this point and have had numerous trajectory confirmations but it is genuinely at the stage where any form of funding will really assist us in getting the hardware complete, firmware & software integrated so we can begin shipping to interested parties: crypto miners, commercial solar installers and residential owners. Marketing is an ongoing process but added resources would make a significant difference at this stage.

Goals

Our goals are to firm up the hardware, firmware and software development piece so we can scale into new markets. A key goal is to expose the Neo community to the world and for us to integrate our work with the Neo community as a whole and ideally become a part of the community and onboard new users to the community while we continue to ship product and meet key industry stakeholders.

Deliverables & Roadmap

1. Firmware Development Q1 2026

• Finalize embedded logic for high voltage solar monitoring
• Integrate offset time stamping and blockchain ready data formatting
• Ensure compatibility with Powerwall and industrial inverters

2. Software Layer Q1 2026

• Build dashboard for offset tracking, installer onboarding, and reward distribution
• Integrate wallet logic and Neo bridge compatibility
• Enable ESG reporting and tokenized loyalty flows

3. High Voltage Prototype Completion Q1 2026

• Manufacture and test clamp on hardware for industrial solar rigs
• Validate safety protocols and BOM for 600V+ environments
• Prepare for installer grade deployment across US, LATAM. Asia, EU and Africa.

4. Marketing & Outreach Q1-Q2 2026

• Launch targeted campaigns for crypto miners and solar installers
• Deploy educational content across Reddit, Telegram, and WhatsApp as well as press releases.
• Build funnel assets for beta onboarding and offset dashboard previews

5. Grant Reporting & Ecosystem Integration Q2 2026

• Document technical specs, offset logic, and DePIN alignment

• Map composability with Neo and other ecosystems. 

• Prepare visuals and grant deliverables for public release confirming the support that Neo ecocosystem gave to our oproject was the primary catalyst in our success.

• Total Estimated Duration: 90 days

• Full-Time Equivalent (FTE): 62

• Total Budget: 18,000.00 GAS

Also, provide a roadmap overview for the deliverables.
Best to view our Github repo for road map: https://github.com/lifebricksglobal/CarbonSmartMeter/blob/main/Carbon%20Smart%20Meter/docs/Whitepaper_RoadMap

Deliverables Verifiability

1. Firmware Development Q1 2026 - we will upload images and progress to a google drive or similar that the community can access and verify with a lot of shareable updates going on social media. Our team uses social media a lot.
2. Software Layer Q1 2026 - as above the best way would be loom videos of progress uploaded to YouTube with a link provided for the community to access and confirm.
3. High Voltage Prototype Completion Q1 2026 - this will be a huge milestone for us and will be celebrated with press releases and social media mentions tagging the community mentioning and thanking them for the support. Again, without this funding it will be hard for us to proceed with the project so hitting this particular milestone would really be our crowning moment as we can now work with and supply commercial grade installers.
4. Marketing & Outreach Q1-Q2 2026 - this is ongoing and would be visible across all our social media platforms where we post regular updates of the project already. We work hard every day on our project so we always have some kind of update or news piece to share.
5. Grant Reporting & Ecosystem Integration Q2 2026 - we will submit a final report to the community showing where the funds went, how they were spent and the result. The ultimate metric will be sales and partnerships made.

Budget Plan

• 1. Firmware Development – $8,000
• Finalize embedded logic for high voltage solar monitoring
• Integrate offset time stamping and blockchain ready data formatting
• Ensure compatibility with Powerwall and industrial inverters

2. Software Layer – $8,000

• Build dashboard for offset tracking, installer onboarding, and reward distribution
• Integrate wallet logic and Neo bridge compatibility
• Enable ESG reporting and tokenized loyalty flows.

3. High Voltage Prototype Completion – $8,000

• Manufacture and test clamp on hardware for industrial solar rigs
• Validate safety protocols and BOM for 600V+ environments
• Prepare for installer grade deployment across US, LATAM. Asia, EU and Africa.

4. Marketing & Outreach – $8,000

• Launch targeted campaigns for crypto miners and solar installers
• Deploy educational content across Reddit, Telegram, and WhatsApp as well as press releases.
• Build funnel assets for beta onboarding and offset dashboard previews

5. Grant Reporting & Ecosystem Integration – $5,000

• Document technical specs, offset logic, and DePIN alignment
• Map composability with Neo and other ecosystems. 
• Prepare visuals and grant deliverables for public release

6. Miscellaneous/ redundancy - $5,000

About You / Your Organization

• Individual/Entity Name: Carbon Credits Marketplace
• Website: https://linktr.ee/carboncreditsmarketplace
• GitHub Organization (if applicable): https://github.com/lifebricksglobal/CarbonSmartMeter/tree/main/Carbon%20Smart%20Meter

Short-Bio

Our team consists of two founders:

Technical Founder Tom: Hardware architect and ecosystem builder. Leads device design, firmware logic, and blockchain integration. Previously deployed solar systems across West Africa for solar farm installers and residential setups.

Marketing & Legal Founder Patricia: Is a campaign strategist with a strong understanding of ESG positioning. Manages grant applications, investor relations, and compliance frameworks. Has experience working in a legal environment across multiple jurisdictions.

Portfolio of Projects / Past Experience

Together, we’ve shipped hardware, renovated properties, travelled to Pacific Islands like Rarotonga and Vanuatu and visited factories in Asia where we were able to identify the best manufacturers for our needs. This was a huge win as it gives us immediate access to a well set and pretested supply chain.
Our experience with the West Africa market showed us how to scale and that smaller easy to ship products with good margins connected to the virality of the internet and Web3 space are more efficient than large, hard to move and illiquid assets.
With this experience we activated marketing campaigns across multiple jurisdictions and now we are scaling the Carbon Smart Meter as the sovereign backbone of a decentralized energy verification network. We believe this is the work that defines the trajectory of our lives.

We began this year building out training datasets for AI RAG Chatbots and that experience got us more involved in the backend of coding. We were able to learn more about compliance, regulation and how to build a compliance ready product:
https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/lifebricksglobal/llm-rag-chatbot-training-dataset

We have what it takes, we have come so far with the development of this particular concept and are heartened to see it take shape daily, weekly and monthly. With your support we can truly get this project noticed and deploy our Carbon Smart Meters to solar farms world wide and generate offsets that can then be tokenized into carbon credits and supplied OTC to institutions around the world.

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Proposal Info 📋

• Proposal Type: request-for-funding

• Amount Requested: 18000

• Token: 0xd2a4cff31913016155e38e474a2c06d08be276cf (GAS)

• Receiver Address: NV1yNzNBywp72QDnL7DSaTg1ees7kUC4jG (0xd94bfc7fe84b67924f956831bd36e02b1dcadb63)

• Created by: @lifebricksglobal 🚀

• Proposal : https://grantshares.io/app/details/f306a7940bdec3f7d3d105ebc27d0bf9

• Raw Intents: 👀

[ {
  "target_contract" : "0x6276c1e3a68280bc6c9c00df755fb691be1162ef",
  "method" : "releaseTokens",
  "params" : [ {
    "type" : "Hash160",
    "value" : "d2a4cff31913016155e38e474a2c06d08be276cf"
  }, {
    "type" : "Hash160",
    "value" : "d94bfc7fe84b67924f956831bd36e02b1dcadb63"
  }, {
    "type" : "Integer",
    "value" : "1800000000000"
  } ],
  "call_flags" : 15
} ]

---

👇 React with 👍 if you liked it, or 👎 if you think this proposal can be enhanced!

[lifebricksglobal]

Thanks everyone for taking a look at this, we look forward to any and all feedback on our project!

[grantshares-dapp]

🚨 This proposal was edited by the proposer.

[gsmachado]

Thanks for your submission!

The community will take a look at your proposal and come back with some questions/considerations.

[grantshares-dapp]

⛓ This proposal was created on-chain! 🔥🚀🎉

➡️ Now, waiting for a GrantShares Member to endorse it... ⏰

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🚨IMPORTANT🚨
Pay attention to the following deadlines: ⏰

• Expiration (should be endorsed until): Dec 6, 2025 6:02:48 PM UTC

---

General info:

• On-Chain ID: 88
• Transaction hash: 0x0b9b0761fd18df7fafd6437b4c1aad3616e016946eafdb02ab88a278afe4ecb2

[gsmachado]

@lifebricksglobal why did you put the proposal on-chain without first hearing any community feedback?

Now your proposal can't be changed any longer, and the probability that a DAO member endorses is lower, IMHO.

[lifebricksglobal]

Thanks for the heads up and you’re right, I misunderstood the process and thought proposals had to be submitted on chain first before feedback so that’s on me. Looking back at the docs I understood that proposals had to be submitted on-chain to initiate formal review and voting. There wasn’t a clear warning that early submission could reduce endorsement probability.

That being said I’m fully aligned with the spirit of community review and iteration, and I’d love to hear any feedback you or others have. If it’s possible to submit a revised version or treat a secondary proposal as the primary, I’m open to doing that immediately?

[deanragnarok]

Hi @lifebricksglobal - Thanks for putting this proposal together. There are a few things that I think need more clarity before I can form any real opinion.

First, I'm not clear about the role Neo plays in your project. From what I can see, there’s no concrete explanation of how or where Neo is integrated, whether you’re planning to use N3, X, or any specific features. What smart contracts are being written for Neo, and on which chain? As it stands, the integration feels vague at best. If you’re asking the Neo community to fund a part of your roadmap, it needs to be clear how that funding supports the ecosystem and what technical commitments are being made in return.

Second, on the hardware side: you’re targeting industrial-grade deployment across multiple continents in the next two quarters, including high-voltage clamp-on meters. That’s an aggressive timeline, and it raises questions. Are your devices already in testing? Do you have manufacturing partners secured? Have you begun any of the safety or compliance processes required to ship energy-monitoring devices internationally? I didn’t see anything addressing certifications like CE, UL, or region-specific energy safety standards. If those steps haven’t started yet, it’s hard to see how you’ll realistically hit the milestones you’re outlining.

The offset and reward system also needs more clarity. You mention users earning tokens for energy output, and you reference carbon offsets, but it’s not entirely clear whether those offsets are verifiable or tradable, or just used as a framing device for the reward logic. If you are generating legitimate offsets, how are they verified? Through what standards or registries? And how do you prevent someone from spoofing energy generation data? There’s mention of wallet-device binding, but beyond that, I’m not sure what protections are in place.

Lastly, the team size feels like a mismatch to the scope. From what’s included in the proposal, it looks like the two of you are responsible for everything from firmware to web apps to grant reporting and institutional offset sales. Is anyone else involved? Are you contracting any engineers, legal help, or compliance experts? If this is still a two-person team, then the size and speed of what you’re proposing feels very optimistic.

Thanks!

[lifebricksglobal]

@deanragnarok thanks for your response, greatly appreciated. As you know, building in public is never easy most phd grads doing the other side of this work get to do it in private, iterate and then publish a finished paper.

I would say a bit more background on the team would help frame the ask. We come from a project management background in law, tech, real estate and logistics. We spent the pre covid and covid years renovating numerous houses with a team of what grew to be 100 people across New Zealand and Argentina with only 2 full time workers. Our preferred and learned method of collaboration has always been to bring people onboard to projects as contractors as this reduces key person friction and usually cuts down on delivery timeframes. Our real talent lies in connecting professionals to do their part of a job while we steer the whole project through to completion.

Last year, 2024, we transported lithium batteries, flexible solar panels and energy saving smart meters via sea and airfreight from Ningbo, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China to West Africa where the items were sold and distributed. This process involved obtaining lithium battery safety certification for both air freight and sea freight. A process that is covered at the point of manufacture or at the export warehouse by the export agent for a small fee if the items being tested are not labelled as DG (Dangerous Goods). Items are only labelled DG when they have gas, acid, fuels, lithium batteries or are susceptible to spontaneous combustion.



A review of our BOM (Bill of Materials) show no batteries, gas, acid, fuels or any items that are susceptible to spontaneous combustion in the Carbon Smart Meter meaning it is safe for quick and efficient air transport as it is a light weight device weighing no more than 1kg including the box it would come in. So in the absence of a DG label there are no other compliance processes required to ship energy monitoring devices internationally; at least none that I am aware of at this stage having travelled with a 3kg 1000W inverter in my checked in luggage to Europe just a few months ago. The only other travel restrictions may come in the form of possible trade war tariffs, of which we would avoid conducting business between countries that are subject to increased tariffs.

We’ve been through this process before having worked hands on in the solar and IoT energy monitoring space, so a lot of what we’re building now comes from direct experience with the hardware, data flows, and field deployment realities. Combined with firsthand experience living across multiple continents and holding dual residencies, we’ve developed a different lens on what’s actually possible in freight, logistics, and cross border infrastructure. It’s helped us see both the hidden constraints and the overlooked opportunities that others might miss. As a result we have built a web of manufacturers, freight forwarders and distributors who are in the business of making and delivering items wherever required.

An important update is we have chosen to do our pilot run out of South America, most likely Argentina where there are renewable energy facilities as well as multiple small to mid sized farmers who live off grid in Patagonia and Mendoza. We have already had interest in a device such as this where users want to be able to monitor their offset and potentially earn some form reward on the blockchain for doing so. This gives us a strong client and user base with which we can begin to build a loyal user base who would significantly benefit from our technology, with the ability to iterate quickly on the ground.

The device would be built to local standards with view of obtaining  CE & UL certification overtime as these two particular tests do take time but are not a hard and fast for us to launch and deliver working Carbon Smart Meters in Argentina. The parts we are using are industrial grade, high quality and are designed to last ~10 years. This means the certification and testing process for  CE & UL is shortened while already meeting in country standards and requirements from day 1 with zero international export risk early on.

Argentina has previously had a long standing agreement with the Netherlands to build frigates to EU specifications. Argentina has built submarines and has the technology to run nuclear energy facilities and have rocket launch pads meaning the country has the technology, and testing labs are readily available to turn around our project within a relatively short period of time, both Pat and Tom are Argentine residents and would qualify for any preferential local pricing.

Our co-founder Pat is an Argentine citizen who has extensive contacts locally including electronics circuit board and solar PV engineers who have significant solar experience. Argentina is also hosting DevConnect next week. It appears Argentina was chosen to host this session of DevConnect as the population are one of the most open to being exposed to new technologies such as the blockchain and actually have a need to receive payments online as their devaluing peso creates a significant need; on top of the whole country being digitally active. Pat is part of a team exploring the legal framework for using blockchain in agriculture specifically how it could support certification systems that give small producers better access to competitive markets. Since Argentina is one of the most impactful regions for this sector, starting the project there adds both strategic and practical alignment.

Regarding the offsets, the flow of data from the smart meter to the blockchain via cloud storage for storage and data logging means the flow is traceable and verifiable. Once on the blockchain the data is immutable. Only the issuance of the reward token is currently issued on chain via the smart contract logic. Having our focus more on commercial and industrial clients our feedback is they are after the simplification and streamlining of the Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) processes. For these users the Carbon Smart Meter is a time saving, cost reducing device and platform that enables reliable compliance reporting for ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) requirements and for them, a tool that could open green financing routes simply because of the automated measuring recording and verification aspect. We save them time and costs and they may choose to retain the rewards tokens in a N3 wallet for future OTC distribution.

Importantly, further due diligence has unearthed that we should postpone any form of trading related rewards token that can be sold on a DEX for stables and focus on building the wCARBON smart contact logic first. We are operating in quite a conservative, industrial space and would not wish to jeopardise our growth so at this stage any other token has been sidelined other than wCARBON as described in this response.

Our thoughts regarding N3 and X are to implement wCARBON issuance and retention logic on Neo by leveraging Neo’s smart contract frameworks, native token standards, and new ecosystem features like Neo FS and Oracles. These tools would allow us to build a peer to peer ESG token system that’s both compliant and chain native. The Neo Oracle Service in N3 would enable our smart contracts to securely access data from external sources like data lakes and other websites via HTTP or Neo FS in a decentralized manner which is a key feature of the upgraded network that we are drawn to. It allows us to bring verified energy data on chain without relying on external bridges or cross chain dependencies!

We do not have the technical capacity to do the Neo smart contract work oursleves. Therefore we aim to work alongside the Neo community and ecosystem potentially via a bounty or hackathon system that would be mutually beneficial.

Making off chain information available on chain for us also means we no longer need to look cross chain for that data, which could potentially further streamline the registry approval process. The connection to cloud storage and data tables means the issuance could be done automatically without manual intervention as long as the smart contract rules are met. This is a key part of us digitising the entire MRV process and we would definitely be contacting VERRA and Gold Standard for their input on the final verification methodology before finalising the smart contract code.

Regarding verification standards and registries, our entire process is designed to mirror Gold Standard and VERRA methodologies for renewable energy offsets, but issued natively via smart contract. We’re aligning with CORSIA and VCM principles for aviation and voluntary markets, with optional brokerage support for registry onboarding. The verification of the process could also be done by a third party oracle, a third party cross chain verification service or using our internal legal founder and her network of lawyers and compliance specialists to broker the compliance and sale of the generated carbon assets along side consultations with VERRA and Gold standard.

To be clear, we do not claim that wCARBON is currently approved by VERRA or Gold Standard. As of now, (and at launch) it will not carry certification from these registries. What we are doing is building a legally sound, verifiable framework using Argentina as a case study. By aligning with approved methodologies and generating offset data from real commercial applications, we aim to position wCARBON for future eligibility under VERRA or similar standards.
This raises an important question: if the data is immutable from source to chain, has been third-party verified, and meets the criteria of existing methodologies, what would prevent these credits from becoming the first truly decentralized carbon offsets, especially if a willing third party were to acquire them in a peer to peer transaction for internal ESG or compliance use?

From my understanding we are building one of the first if not the first real example of decentralising what is currently a very centralised, cumbersome and exclusionary MRV system.

Regarding security, each smart meter will be cryptographically linked to a wallet at install so only that wallet can trigger wCARBON issuance from that device. In a network of devices say a power station fleet, we would create a central point from which all other meters connect and combine into one central command wallet.

We use industrial grade Hall effect CTs with tamper resistant enclosures and seals. At the point of installation the clamp is installed, a photo confirmation of the serial number and position are uploaded into the system and firmware signs telemetry snapshots before upload to the cloud. There is also an SD card that retains data offline as a redundancy. Smart contracts can check for timestamp consistency and optionally query already connected Neo oracle or other services to validate solar conditions such as irradiance, weather and time of day.

Also our one click ESG report download ensures every issuance comes with a downloadable report showing device ID, timestamp, energy generated, and wCARBON issued. This supports peer to peer trust and most importantly creates the chain of data and evidence that will be needed to support an application for Verra or Gold Standard accreditation per site.

To wrap this up, no, we’re not claiming perfection. But everything we’re building is grounded in auditability, traceability, and comes from a compliance first mindset. Could someone try to spoof the system? Sure. But it would be costly, easy to detect, and ultimately self defeating.

That’s exactly the kind of integrity our industrial partners and registries care about.

If I’ve missed something please let me know.



Tom.

[lifebricksglobal]

I have attached a simplified visual of the energy and data flow to the blockchain from the energy sources. It failed to upload so i've added it to a Google Drive link for easy access.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RKU4XISK7RaRGYYZ-5wBg8jamwc9Kd8I/view?usp=sharing