How to earn ZeroCarbon token rewards and are they really worth anything?

Derek Myers
Zero Carbon Project
4 min readOct 11, 2018

In the spirit of competitive market for social good, our most frequently asked questions are now ‘how can we earn ZeroCarbon token rewards’ and ‘what are they worth’? We believe the best way to tackle climate change is to reward the contributors, especially the earlier ones.

Earning ZeroCarbon token rewards

Energy consumer can benefit financially from using the Zero Carbon Market to purchase energy while contributing to the social good. Consumers can switch to zero carbon energy, while saving money compared to their existing supply; and also earn ZeroCarbon tokens. A typical household consumer spending £1,000 could earn tokens worth £55/year at current managed market prices. The maths is provided later in this article.

More token rewards can be earned by helping us spread the word using our easy to use referrals programme. These bonus reward tokens could be worth an additional £44/year for each referral and could continue as long as the new customer continues using the Zero Carbon Market. The new customer will also earn this same bonus reward.

Earn ZeroCarbon token rewards for tackling climate change

Using these assumptions, a Zero Carbon consumer could earn enough ZeroCarbon token rewards to cover his electricity costs after referring 21 new customers.

Note that these valuations are based on the ZeroCarbon token’s current managed market price of US$0.30. These are purchased on behalf of energy suppliers to pay their transaction fees. These tokens are traded across EtherDelta, a decentralised crypto exchange, as explained below.

How the rewards programme works

The rewards programme has been designed for potency in order to provide a catalyst for changing consumers’ energy purchasing behaviour. Surveys suggest that 70% of energy consumers don’t use comparison and switching sites even though they can save money. The energy cost savings are not enough for them to prioritize the effort involved in switching.

Traditional loyalty rewards don’t cut it. Our rewards have been designed to pack a punch. We have designed a utility token and supporting token economy to capture the value of the utility received by customers from the service that our Market provides.

The token economy is underpinned by energy suppliers being required to purchase ZeroCarbon tokens, in order to pay their transaction fees, for winning consumer business across our Market. Up to 70% of these fees are then recycled to top-up a consumer rewards pool. This pool is initially staked with 61% of the Project’s ZeroCarbon tokens.

In order to earn these ZeroCarbon token rewards customers need to switch to zero carbon energy offered across our Zero Carbon Market. We have 32 UK energy suppliers lined up and ready to compete for business across our Market.

ZeroCarbon reward maths

The £55 valuation of reward tokens is based on being able to sell the 240 tokens across at the current managed market price of US$0.30.

Customer will initially earn 1 Zero Carbon token for every 100kwh of electricity consumed. So an average household which consumes a moderate amount of energy, equivalent to 5,000 kWh/year, will earn 50 tokens.

Our referral programme has been designed to significantly amplify these consumption-based rewards. If a new customer was referred by an existing customer then they will earn bonus rewards, initially equal to three times their normal consumption-based rewards. So 150 bonus reward tokens continuing with our typical household example. Please ask our community for an introduction referral to gain this valuable bonus reward.

The introducing customer will earn the same level of rewards for spreading the word, in this example, 200 tokens. The introducer will continue to earn bonus rewards in perpetuity as long as the new customer continues to use our Market.

In addition to these rewards, new customers earn 10 token rewards for registering and 30 tokens for completing their first energy supply deal across our Market.

These ZeroCarbon tokens are currently being purchased for US$0.30 across Ether Delta, a decentralised crypto exchange. Consumers can sell their reward tokens across this exchange. However most of the purchases are currently being managed by Zero Carbon Project on behalf of energy suppliers until liquidity is independent developed.

The following article link provides a case study documenting three consumers switching experience and the rewards they earned in a Zero Carbon Market trial in UK and Australia https://medium.com/zero-carbon-project/zero-carbon-customers-earn-generous-rewards-as-early-adopters-in-pre-launch-trial-e9db35613504

Making it easy for the mainstream non-crypto consumers

Zero Carbon Project aims to make this process easier for the mainstream non-crypto consumer. Customers who prefer not having to set up a wallet can use the ZeroCarbon token wallet that we have integrated with our Market software. This is browser based and off-blockchain. Zero Carbon Project can manage their ZeroCarbon token rewards, cash them in or transfer to other on-chain wallets.

Also, the Zero Carbon Market can manage your annual energy supply contract renewals. We will notify you by email of our recommendations with our reasoning, then conduct the transaction and notify you of the results benchmarked to other offers available on the market.

Trust is paramount

We recognise that trust is paramount when providing a new innovative solution to customers. We aim to provide full transparency on decisions that we make. We also aim to provide clear explanations to cut through the complexity arising from constant change and innovation.

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