HATHOR AMA: Solving green Bitcoin mining with the merge mining Hathor.Green initiative

What's up everyone?

Giovanni.

I'm Giovanni. Welcome back to another Cointelegraph live stream show. Today I have the pleasure to be joined by Ian Martins, CEO of ATOR Labs and Alex Nascimiento, member of the blockchain faculty at the University of California and founder of 7cc Blockchain Investments. How are you doing guys today?

Excellent. Pleasure to be talking to you again, also with Professor Alex and all the audience.

Yeah, no, it's a pleasure. Thanks, Giovanni, for having us. Great to be here and fantastic to chat with everyone around the world listening to us.

Yeah, that's a pleasure. So just to introduce you guys. So for those who don't know, in a nutshell, HATOR is an open source blockchain architecture on. On which users can create their own token. And basically today Hathor is launching a new initiative called Hathor Green, an initiative to encourage the usage of renewable energy practices for bitcoin mining. So before we start the conversation, I would like to remind our audience that this is an interactive live stream show. So please write your comments in the chat and I will ask our guests, especially considering that this is a very important topic because we are talking a lot about this bitcoin renewable energy issue that ATOR is going to tackle and is explaining how today. So let's get into it. Ian, maybe you would like to just go a little bit more in details about what ATOR network is?

Sure. Thank you.

Giovanni.

As you said, we are an easy to use blockchain. At the moment, it's pretty easy to issue your own token. We are based on the PhD work of our CTO, Dr. Marcelo. He proposed back in 2018 a new architecture for distributed ledger technologies where there's a combination of a dag of transactions and a traditional blockchain. So we do have blocks and we also do have mining. It's very important for us. We also use proof of work as consensus mechanism, the same as bitcoin. Which is why we're here to talk about a bit about mining and green mining. So yeah, I think in a nutshell, that's it.

Great. So now that people understand what AUR Network is, now we can go into the actual initiative that you are launching today, which is Hape Green. So can you tell us a little bit about this initiative? How did you come up with it and what is the goal of this initiative?

Sure, yeah. As much as I'd like to take credit for it, I cannot because this is an idea of one of our closest advisors, Rod. So he's very much into mining and with all this debate that's been going on with the energy use and the origin of the energy used. He proposed that we incentivize the miners that use renewable energy because I think we can go a bit into the debate of energy using Bitcoin, but I think everyone can agree that using renewable energies for that is a good thing. Despite it, we think that the energy consumption is too high or not. But I think everyone can agree that green energy being used is a good thing. So he proposed that incentivize miners for doing that. And what's the best way to do that if not giving them extra incentive? So that's the basic idea of Hatogrin that we're launching today. It's, let's say for these first couple months it's a pilot. We also want to see what we're going to get in terms of adoption and understanding with the miners, if this is an important thing. So basically any miner that use renewable energy to mine Hatter and at the same time, since we support merged mining, they're going to be mining Bitcoin or bitcoin cash or Bitcoin sv. He'll be able to receive extra rewards in HDR or native token. So he's in a sense incentivized to a good behavior to using renewable energy.

Yeah. And we're going to get deeper into this concept of merged mining a little bit later because this is crucial to make people understand what is the point of this initiative. But first I would like to ask Alex, what do you think of this idea of incentivizing miners to use renewable energy? Is it like the most viable option to solve Bitcoin's environmental problem according to you?

Very good question, Giovanni. Thanks. I think that there is two things we're facing now in the world. Right. We're coming to a global understanding that climate change is, is a major problem and it should be at the front row seat of any kind of major government agency, investor, corporation. It's definitely a problem where all humanity should be tackling. As Bitcoin and other and other cryptocurrencies are becoming more popular and certainly having a wider global adoption, those two topics are converging.

Right.

And then now we're trying to figure it out how do we minimize the footprint of cryptocurrency, mining and processing. And it's not only cryptocurrencies, it's kind of like any kind of a data center or any kind of large consumption of energy. So just a few data points. I don't know if you guys had A chance to read the recent bank of America report on climate change and cryptocurrencies. We're getting an increase of about 40 million tons of carbon emissions in the last two years. That's about almost 9 million cars on the road, equivalent to, if you would look at Bitcoin mining, that energy consumes more than the countries of Greece, Chile or Czech Republic. So that's a problem we as an industry and are trying to tackle. And the program of Hathor Green is one of the greatest initiatives in this space that I have seen so far as an investment firm. We're taking a very close look on how we can work with ESG funds to allocate funds into the space. And ESG is projected to go to over $50 trillion in the next four years. So a lot of money, a lot of incentives are looking at the space and I think Hawthorne Green is a good bridge to bridge that kind of interest, that kind of incentive into our industry.

Yeah, those are all very good points. I'm just seeing that we have a question from the audience. It's not exactly directly related to the ATOR Green initiative. It's more about the future plans of ATOR Network. So what are the next plans for ATOR Network? Ian, maybe you can just quickly remind your audience about the next milestones that your project hopes to achieve.

Yeah, sure. I mean we do have our roadmap and then we have a medium post detailing it. Also we are coming to a round on Q2, so we probably updated and all the community about the next steps. I think one of the most sought after features and I also see there's a question about it. It's in a contract which is coming up. Also since there's been a lot of interest in NFTs, it's one of the things that we kind of fast tracked and yesterday we did announce a major partnership for NFTS here in Brazil, which is also an interesting topic for us to talk about because one of the first questions that this artist, which is like a really well known global influencer with over 40 million YouTube subscribers, one of the first topics he asked was what about energy use? So I believe all the projects that companies looking to build on top of networks, any blockchain, they're going to be mindful of that. So I think that makes it even more interesting and pressing for us to address all these issues as Professor Alex just outlined.

Awesome. So I think now we are ready to get a bit more understanding of what merge mining means. So the ATOR Network offers this feature which is merged mining, which in a nutshell, as far as I understand, allows bitcoin miners to mine both two different coins, one bitcoin and the hot or network coin. So can you explain, Ian, what is the point? What is the advantage for miners to practice this merge mining activity and how that is key in order to make this ATOR green initiative function?

Yeah, sure. Merge mining is an interesting concept. I believe it was Satoshi himself who on Bitcoin Talk Post back in 2010 talked about the possibility of chains sharing the hash rate. So as you said, it's pretty spot on. It allows bitcoin miners, actually miners of any coin that uses, in our case SHA256 to mine at the same time bitcoin or maybe bitcoin cash or bitcoin SV and also hdr, which is our coin. So they're going to be using the same work to mine both coins. They don't have any extra costs. This is already something important to understand in the green perspective, because in a sense for mining ACR you are not using extra energy. So it's already a very green chain if you take this perspective, because there's no extra energy used. So on top of that, we want to have this program, the Hatter green program, to incentivize the miners as well. But in the very basis of it is already a very green in ESG compliance network itself by use mining.

And I'm actually curious, is it possible to do this merge mining with more than just two coins? Is it possible like for example, to merge simultaneously 3, 4, 5 different coins or it just works with 2?

No, it does. It's possible to mine multiple coins at the same time as long as one of the coins supported. So in our case we support merged mining. So you can merge mine ACR with, let's say bitcoin, but if you have other coins that also support merge mining, so you could mine bitcoin ATR and these other coins. So it's really good because the same work is being used to secure all this network and for proof of work chains. That's the most important thing that this work is being used to secure these chains. And also to answer your first question about what's the benefit for us for using it, it allows us to gain a very high hash rate very quickly because we are kind of tapping into the hash rates of the bitcoin network, which is the most secure one. So I mean, that was the main idea that we wanted to achieve when we decided to move forward with Mergemine, since we are proof of work chain security. And the hash rate is fundamental. So achieving a high hash rate is super important.

Okay. So for the audience, I think that it's worth to simplify this system as far as I understand. Basically, if you are a bitcoin miner, you might want to tap into your project, start mining the Hator network token as well with this merged mining procedure. Prove you that as a bitcoin miner I'm using renewable energies. And once I prove it to you, I get rewards with the Hator network token. And that's basically the incentive that you're providing.

Yeah, that's correct. I mean, on top of the ACR that you're going to be mining, we also going to provide extra HDR for those who can prove they use renewable energy, green energy. And I saw there was one question here about if you do merge mining, you would return on BTC or HCR would be any less. No, you don't have any performance impact by use merge mining. So your BTC rewards would be the same and HTR also would be the same as if you're doing solo mining.

Yeah, awesome. That was a good point. That was a good question to ask. So maybe Alex, what do you think about this system of incentives for miners? Do you think that it can be a viable solution to tackle this environmental problem of bitcoin? Oh, I think he.

I think I was muted. I think I was muted. No, I think it's, it's essential. Right. There is a lot of press, negative press. There is a lot of noise against bitcoin mining. If we look from an economical perspective, Bitcoin averages half of the entire industry as market cap. I think that a lot of people, although they don't realize it, think that bitcoin is dirty or dirt energy. Majority of bitcoin is mined with hydro, which is already renewable. There is a lot of efforts of mining bitcoin with natural gas and other forms of solar energy, wind and so forth. So I think that naturally there's a lot of bad press around mining bitcoin which hurts the industry, devalues the, the, the value of the currency. And if you have projects like the Hathor Green that incentivize and validate this, these miners to prove to the world that they are doing the right thing, that they are using renewable energy, that only validates the thesis of bitcoin being this decentralized form of improving access to financial freedom to the wider audience in the world. So I think it's a very clever and elegant solution to minimize this bad pr. We're getting that not necessarily has been proven wrong in the global media.

For sure. I think a lot of that bad press coverage comes specifically for the reason that a lot of people don't see the value of Bitcoin and therefore they just see the energy consumption of it. We have an interesting question from the audience now. So if our mining rigs are not yet set up, can we still participate in the Aether Green project? That's for you, Jan. Yeah, sure.

I'll also talk a bit more about the process so far. It's pretty straightforward. You can go to our website, Hacker Green, and check out the project and also there is an application form that you can fill out. So a pretty straightforward application process. As I said, this is kind of like a pilot for us. We're also going to learn a lot about it and improve this project in the next few months. So this is the way that miners can apply. And to answer the other questions, you definitely can apply. As soon as your mining rigs are set up, we envision to have the first batch of applications open until July. But if you're going to be mining and you do use renewable energies, you can just get in touch with us and we'll make sure that you are properly rewarded because in the end, that's what we want. Right. So even though we're kind of expecting to close applications in July, you can get in touch with us and we'll make sure to include you in the program.

Yeah, that was actually going to be my next question. So exactly like how people could.

Could apply to this program, it's pretty straightforward, just a simple form on the website. In the future, as we learn from this first experience, we might improve it, change it a bit. Depending on the number of applications, we might need to make things more automated. But right now it's just a simple form that you have to fill out. We will be also getting some help from our friends, enough to do some of the processing and. But yeah, pretty straightforward.

Yeah, very interesting what Jan is doing, because just wanted to point this out. We've been looking at investing in green bitcoin mining for a long time. We've got a few products in the pipeline. It is one of the major challenges in this industry is the methodology behind validating a green or renewable or bitcoin that was mined with renewable energy. So that's one of the reasons we're very interested as an investment firm in the Hathor Green project, because of the methodology that they're putting together.

So we have another question from the audience. Elle Millen is new in the conversation. She's asking what is Ator green? Have I missed something? So maybe Ian can just in a nutshell, resume what at our green is about. Just to sum up.

Yeah, sure. Let's just recap a bit. Just this initiative from Hetero Network to incentivize miners who are using green renewable energy for mining. Hetero. And also, you know, since we use merge mining, they're going to likely be also mining bitcoin or other coins. So any miners who use renewables, they can apply to the program. We're going to validate their application. And if they are using renewable energy sources, they're going to get an extra rewards in HDR every month. Kind of trying to incentivize the good behavior in the mining industry.

Thanks, Ian. So yeah, if anyone in the chat is actually a miner can just check out Hator's website and see how this initiative works. And if you care about making your mining sources cleaner, that could be a solution.

So yeah, the website is Hatter Green.

Right. So we have another question from the audience regarding the mining basically source of energy. So with most of the mining hash power still coming from China, how.

How.

Do we see the transition to the green initiative look like and how long might that take? I guess that's more a question for you, Alex.

Sure, I can try to tackle that question. So it's important to understand that yes, a good portion of bitcoin is being mined in China every day that's becoming less and less. There is a current trend of Chinese miners looking for other solutions or other places to mine around the world. And then within China, if you do your research, you will understand that the top tier miners are already mining with hydro. Right. And that's a lot of the associations that were now in China in the rainy season. There's a good portion of them, which is not the majority that still mines with coal and other forms of non renewable energies. But China as a government is, is really coming down on, on that kind of use of energy for bitcoin, which, which probably is one of the reasons why we've been seeing this bad press surrounding Chinese bitcoin miners. If you go around the world and you look at renewable energies, they're very competitive on the pricing. You talk about gas, you talk about hydro mixes of renewables, they're becoming very, very competitive with the kilowatt hour costs of running a competitive mining rig. So if the question is how do we see the transition from green initiatives and how long it might take, I think we're Going to see a large portion of the bitcoin network being mined with renewable energies in the next three to four years. And that's one of our key focuses as an investment firm.

Cool.

And that's. Sorry, Ian, what did you say?

Yeah, if I could add something to that. I also think there's a lot of the initiative has to come also from the market side. So if people and institutions, they make this a priority and they put a premium on it, it's definitely gonna make this transition faster. So if we have a premium on bitcoin being mined on renewable energy, definitely we're gonna see switching to this energy sources. So I think there's also, you know, a lot of people demanding for it. But you know, there's going to be an economic incentive also towards companies that can require their projects on green chains, let's say like that. So I think there's a lot of the market demand that's going to push this transition.

Yeah. And Yan is completely right. Right. You have like about $50 trillion coming into the ESG market. A lot is pushed by the Biden administration and that money is looking to allocate in green chains. That money is looking to allocate to miners that can offset their carbon emissions. It's just a demand and supply condition of the current market.

Okay, so now we have another question from the audience which is regarding the token that is available on for mining on ATOR network. So are the tokens available for purchase? Ask the source, maybe.

Yeah, sure. We are available on multiple exchanges. Kucoin as index, coin, Metro qtrade. I also see there are some, some questions about extra listings. Of course, this is something that we're always looking for, but can't comment a lot on it.

Okay, cool. So now I think that it's time to welcome another guest to the conversation. Hi Daniel, how are you?

Hello. Good.

So for those who don't know, this is Daniel Huang, a representative of F2 Pool and Steakfish Mining Pool service provider who is going to give us some perspective from the point of view of Mining pool service provider, how the system offered by Hathor can actually be implemented. So Daniel, as far as I understand, the mining pool you work for is the first one that actually implement the ATOR Green initiative, Is it correct?

Yeah, I believe so. And I guess Jan can confirm that as well.

Yeah, that's correct. We'll be working with F2 pull to get more information and validate everything so we can determine the origin sources and where the miners are located and kind of cross check a Lot of this information to determine the energy being used.

Okay, so if I well understand the miners working for your mining pool, Daniel, are already providing Ian and his company some proof that they are actually using renewable energies?

I don't believe so yet, but I think that audit process should be be rolling out with the Hathor team.

Yeah, as I said, we are starting the applications today. So any miner can go to our website, Hathor Green and start this process. And then we're going to be working with F2 pull to get more insights into it, kind of validate the application, cross check it with, let's say multiple sources of information to make sure we can kind of, you know, be sure that the miner is actually, you know, where he is and using the energy sources he claims. So, yeah, this process is going to be starting today and we are happy to have the support from F2 Pool to help us.

I do want to say that it is completely voluntary on behalf of the miners and mining farms who do elect to kind of prove their renewable energy sourcing.

Yeah, actually I'm very curious to know your perspective, Daniel. Like how do miners that are working for your mining pools view this initiative that launched by Ian? So what's your thoughts on this system of incentives?

Yeah, I can't speak for miners or mining farms. And just to quickly clarify, the miners and mining farms don't work for us. They're just clients of ours. As F2 Pool is a service provider that just kind of provides hash rate aggregation to find blocks together with with the miners. But I think in general the value of sort of the ethos that Hathor has proposed with their Hathor Green program is quite important in incentivizing this type of good behavior, where good behavior is the reliance and perhaps even transition or switch to renewable energy. I think a good analogy is kind of how we've seen the bitcoin networks and the values and the properties of decentralized consensus be secured by miners and node operators. It's essentially a side effect of the main motivator that miners have for profit. And so in this case, since Hathor Green is providing incentivization for miners. Right. That's additional profit in their pockets to go about perhaps attesting that they are using renewable energy. And if the profit is high enough that there may be potential switching from alternate non renewable energy sources to renewable energy sources. And that I think is a good net benefit. And I think that at least from the perspective of F2 Pool and other blockchain infrastructure service providers, that's something that we can back. It's a win, win scenario where everyone kind of eats and then the outcomes are positive in terms of the climate stewardship and ESG goals and motivations.

So.

Yeah, I think that that's very important to achieve as a goal. And I see that our audience is very excited about this topic. We have a lot of involvement, a lot of questions. Next question is the following. We have a very interesting question here. So is ator green for large mining companies or is it also for, let's say an individual who's mining but can prove it run off of solar panels they have installed on their house?

Yeah, definitely. I mean it's, I mean for us, as long as you're using green energy, you can, you are eligible for, for this initiative. So it's, it's really nice to see you have individuals who are mining and especially using green energy on their house. So. Yeah, definitely.

Okay, cool. So you don't need to be plugged into one of these large pools to participate. That's great. So now I would like to ask you, I would like to ask Alex a question regarding the usage of renewable energies for mining bitcoin. A lot of critics say that one negative aspect of renewable energies is that it's not as constant as non renewables. And that is major point why it's so difficult to convince miners to switch to renewables because they cannot keep, for example, mining rigs that work on solar power switched on all day long because there is no solar power available all day long. So how do you see this problematic, Alex?

That's a very good question, Giovanni, because for example, we, we're creating a fund to invest in bitcoins that are mined via renewable energy or that are offset by carbon credits. Right. And we're rolling that out in the next couple of months. So we've been looking very closely to that and that's one of the reasons why we're very excited with the Hathor Green project. But one thing is important to note, right, that that is part of the bad press that it's being generated and it's part about the noise that it's being generated. You are right. And the general press is right to point out that if you're running your bitcoin farm only on solar, solar naturally or on average has a 20% efficiency. So if you have 100 megawatts of solar power, you're going to get about 20 megawatts on average via the course of time.

Right.

But what people forget about is that other forms of renewable energy are not in that category of a 20% efficiency rate. One of them, which is the major source of mining bitcoin, is hydro. Another one that has very efficiency, very high efficiency rates is natural gas. So, yes, you can do a mix. You can, you can mine with, with solar, you can mine with wind. And if you can, and if you can baseline that with other renewable energy sources that are more constant at their production rate, such as natural gas or hydrogen, you will be able to achieve 100% capacity or 100% output of your energy input over the course of time. So just wanted to point out that there's a lot of negative press in the space, and that's why it's important for the audience and for ESG investors to investigate research and do their own due diligence to understand that mining cryptocurrencies via renewable energy is a very viable solution. And I agree with Jan. I think it's a solution that deserves a premium.

Yeah, for sure. That's actually the information that we are trying to convey to our audience. So we have a question from the audience about this premium. So how, how do you structure that premium? Would it be carbon credits? That's a question for you, Ian, about how this premium is going to be structured.

In our case, what we're going to do is whatever you mine on our network, by using renewable energies, you're gonna get a percentage extra at the end of each month. So in the beginning, we're gonna start with 10%. So let's say if you mine 10,000 coins a month, in the end of the month, we're gonna reward you with an extra 10%. So 1000 coins in that sense, but I think in the premium also, in the sense that we're talking about Bitcoin and also Professor Alex was talking about, I think it's kind of a marketplace. The market's going to say how much extra people are going to pay for a green bitcoin. That's called.

Thanks. And now we have another question which is more related to the partnership between Ator and the F2 pool. So maybe that's something that Daniel can answer. So what is the nature of the partnership between your two guys?

Yeah, partnership, collaboration. I think we're definitely excited to support any initiatives that is promoting this sort of climate stewardship. So Heather has already for some time been providing merge mining for F2 pool. So our miners at my bitcoin do get merge mining rewards through Hathor tokens. But also, in addition to this Hathor green program, you'll get the additional bonus rewards as well, so it's definitely we.

Right.

So F2 pull and stakefish has been part of the Blockchain Infrastructure Carbon working group that has been investigating and designing better solutions to climate stewardship. And so it's just our support, I think the, the method by which this type of switch to renewables or reliance on renewables or, or benefit from renewables is, is the right approach.

So.

Okay, now Omar Sy is asking what are the benefits of the hacker network for and better than other chain besides the aspect of using green energy? Ubd, where do you see the price? I guess the main point here is what's the benefit of ATOR network besides the aspect of using green energy? So what are the other strong points of the network, Jan?

Yeah, sure. I mean, I believe we do have an architecture that enables us to scale on layer one level more than traditional blockchains in the space. That's kind of how we started. And also one of the main aspects that we're looking to achieve is making it a easy to use blockchain. So you don't need to be any specialist. Anyone that knows a bit of coding can use us. There's no solidity, there's no gas fees, we have fast and free transactions. So this is for us the way we envision that we're going to make blockchain technologies available to the broader public and companies. So it's easy to use. A lot of our advisors and people use the analogy of doing what WordPress did for the web. It enabled a larger amount of people to come into and create their own websites and just experience and have a online presence. We also want to do the same thing. We want to be easy to use at the level that most companies and people can create their own blockchain based projects.

Yeah. And actually I have a question now regarding the ATOR Green initiative, because this is of course a very admirable initiative that has a very admirable goal. But what I was wondering is the scalability of these initiatives. So can this ATOR green model be kind of used as imitated or taken as a model by other blockchains in order to maximize its impact on this environmental problem of Bitcoin? And maybe Jan, you can give us your thought about this scalability of the initiative.

Yeah, I mean, I sure hope so. As I said, this is kind of like a pilot program. We're going to learn a lot from it, improve it. And I think this kind of inspiration thing that you said is important. So I do hope that we see other projects also adopting more these initiatives. And I think that depends a lot on the market response to it. So we do get a lot of miners interested and then people see there is value in it. Definitely we're going to see more of this in the space.

Alex, what are your thoughts about the scalability of this merged mining solution that ATOR is providing to tackle the Bitcoin's environmental problem? Do you see it?

For sure. And I think it's an add on. Right. So if you look at Bitcoin over the recent years, it went from its original purpose of being a peer to peer payment system to being a store of value. And there's a lot of discussions of like how Bitcoin has become this very innovative approach on how you can store your inputs of energy or your investments energy. Right. Because like Michael Saylor says, if, if I generate 100 megawatts of energy via my very expensive Capex hydro plant and I don't utilize that 100 megawatts, it's gone. Right. There is no way for me to get it back. But if you can store the value of it in a Bitcoin that has become one of the greatest innovations in the energy space in the last couple of years. But as we all know, Bitcoin is not a, a protocol that it's suited for high transaction output. You can't, you can't Compare Visa and MasterCard and Amex and all these other forms of transaction cashless payments with Bitcoin. It's just, just not there.

Right.

So we need solutions like Hathor that are going to provide that additional layer to make very fast throughput transactions. And being on a green chain, on a chain that requires less energy, I think it's a benefit for both sides of the industry, not only for the people that are Bitcoin Maximus and want to use Bitcoin as the store of value, but also as users who want to use the Bitcoin network for daily transactions of payments and cash transactions, smart contracts and other innovative forms of blockchain technology. So I think it's an add on and a good pair.

Okay, thanks Alex. So now I would like to ask if there is any risk involved in this merged mining practice. Maybe Daniel, since he's the representative mining pool provider, can answer this question. Then maybe Jan can also tell us what city's view. Is there any risk involved in this practice?

Maybe if you could clarify where risk on whose behalf?

Because as far as I heard there is some sort of risk when you simultaneously mine two separate coins because there is higher risk of 51% attack since the miners don't have to. I mean the miners are somehow facilitated in a possible 51% attack on the network.

So yeah, I think with.

Maybe the.

Answer is much simpler than we might expect but.

Right.

Obviously a network would benefit from having its own set of node operators and miners that doesn't have to be merge mined. So it's probably just as simple as that.

Jan, do you have any thoughts on that because I read that part on your website.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean since the miners are getting the rewards extra at the same time as they are mining bitcoin, definitely there are some incentives and less penalties for them, let's say, let's put it like that. But I mean from our perspective the goal is always increasing the hash rate, having it distributed. So the more miners we get, the harder it's going to become for, for people to do this kind of attack. And I mean so far even on larger merge mined coins we haven't seen any kind of behavior like that from the miners. Especially when we partner with institutions such as F2 pool we see that this risk decreases a lot because they would be the ones that have to conduct this sort of attack in the sense of trying to do a 51%. So I think that the risk is greatly reduced by doing this kind of a high level partnerships and having good relationships with the miner.

Okay, now I have other questions from the audience. So this is about the latest news that we heard a couple of days ago. So with El Salvador's news that came out yesterday about mining using geothermal energy to mine bitcoin, have you guys thought about approaching them about merged mining Hator?

Definitely it's a good idea. You know, we're always looking for more miners but in the end it's a decision that the miners have to have to take. But yeah, the more miners that we have, as I just said, the better for the network and the security. So we are going to try and talk to you know, all miners possible and get them to also merge minehacker.

Okay, cool. So we have a lot of questions from the audience. I'm very pleased to see so much participation. Guys, don't hesitate to ask some more questions. We have some more time to ask them. So this is something about the structure, the organization of ator. So Omar, Sy is asking how are you planning to decentralize the ATOR network from other labs? If that's.

Yeah, sure. I mean like as of today the network is 100% open and decentralized. So for us we always love the Bitcoin philosophy that anyone can run a node and validate the transactions. Now this is also something important that the miners can do and try and reverse transactions. But as long as you have your own node that's following the rules, you could not follow what the miners are trying to do. So for us, having this decentralization of being able to run a full node yourself, I could run a full node, anyone. You don't need specialized hardware. This in itself is a rugged centralized network. Obviously, I understand that at this moment, Hatter Labs is the main developer of the protocol and has a large impact on the decisions. But this is something that gradually we're looking forward to more companies building on it and also contributing to the protocol. So our code is on GitHub, it's open source. Anyone can create a request there, the team is going to analyze it. And the more companies building it, the better. You know, I'd love to see like 5, 10, 20 companies developing products, solutions and also contributing to the, to the product development. You know, it's. I think it's kind of our dream. The moment that we actually don't need the Hatter Labs to be kind of the steward of the, of the protocol, to have it kind of completely decentralized, as it happens with Bitcoin.

Yeah, I think that a lot of our viewers are looking forward to a version to a world where we have this decentralized open source protocols that are also environmentally friendly. So that's a great goal to have. But now I would like to ask you. We saw not long ago that a mining initiative was launched by Elon Musk and Michael Saylor. It's an initiative aimed at making Bitcoin more environmentally friendly. And it's called the Bitcoin Mining Council. I was curious to know if you have any plans or if you have any plans to kind of collaborate with this initiative.

I think any initiative in this area is very good in regards to collaboration. I don't know, maybe in the future, being very honest in the short term, I'm not sure, but it would be a good thing. It's not like we're close to it or we have any objections, but maybe it's gonna happen. I don't know.

Maybe Alex can give us a couple of his views on this initiative if he thinks that is something that can be somehow compatible with what Jan is trying to accomplish.

Yeah, I think that in general it's driven by market demands. Right. And market dynamics. Like I was mentioning, we're projected to see like a tenfold increase on esg investments in the next three to five years. And obviously Elon Musk, Michael Saylor and some of the other whales in the space are looking to capture that. And not only to capture that, but to try to solve our global climate change problem is a win, win scenario for everyone, not only in the blockchain industry, but just in the planet. So we, I, I foresee that we're going to see more and more initiatives like the Bitcoin Mining Council and I welcome projects like Jan's projects and other projects out there to join forces and, and try to come together into innovative solutions that address those two key points. Right. One is the demand for cleaner energy solutions and the other one is how do we supply that demand? And projects like Hathor Green are trying to solve that supply question. So my forecast is that we're going to continue to see a growth in efforts coming from investors and other organizations like the Bitcoin Mining Council. And most likely we're going to see of growth and solutions like Hathor Green.

Okay, great. So I think that now we can start wrapping things up. We have one more, we can ask one more question from the audience and then some final remarks. So we have Emperor Mitensify who is asking what are your Q2 2021 targets and are you on track to accomplish them? Ian?

Sure. I have to remember now all the what we had on the roadmap for Q2. I believe as I said before, Nano contracts are the most awaited feature that we are working on them right now. Also, as I mentioned before, we decided to fast track a bit the NFT features and support because it's just such a a sought after topic for this. So it was in Q3 or Q4, I'm not sure but we already have some initiatives in this area popping up. Also, if not mistaken, the Explorer redesign that we had, it's already underway. Starting with extra functionality. I'd say that a new redesigning the ui, it's going to take a bit longer, but we are already adding new features and improving the services and those are the main ones. Well, also on the business side, partnerships with consultancies and software houses that could build on Hacker Network is on track. We're already in touch with several of them. Yeah, I believe these are the main ones that I can remember the top of my head.

Awesome. We'll be closely monitoring the progress of your project throughout this year. So now I would like to give you the opportunity to make some final remarks if you think the audience needs to know something more, maybe starting from Daniel, if You want to make some final remarks?

Yeah, I just want to say that, like, the fact that Hathor is promoting and is at the network level supporting ESG goals, I think is wonderful. And I think that's why we at F2pull definitely wanted to share and support this initiative.

Okay, Alex, some final thoughts.

Yeah, sure. To add to Daniel's point, as a firm, we're looking very closely, like I mentioned mentioned, to opportunities to share with our investors, funds and other investment vehicles that invest and opportunities like Hathor Grain and other bitcoin investment vehicles that mitigate the footprint of carbon emissions. So we're very glad to continue partnering and supporting Hathor Grain and this effort because like I mentioned, I think it's a win, win not only for the blockchain industry, but for humanity in general.

Great. Jan, do you want to add something else?

Jan, I just want to say that, well, first, thank you, Alex, Daniel, and you for hosting us. But also that really do hope that this project, well, not only is successful in the sense that we do get a lot of miners applying and hopefully someday we can have, you know, 100% of ACR mining based on renewable energies. But also this could kind of spark some, some sort of inspiration in other projects to also adopt some initiatives like this. Definitely there's demand. As Professor Alex said, it's something that it's going to benefit everyone. So hopefully this can be for more projects to come with this.

Yeah, I actually really hope that a lot of other projects will follow your example because this is a very important target to achieve, getting bitcoin completely on renewables. So for those who are watching, don't forget to check out the website of Hator Green, which is Green Dot, Hator Dot Network, and check out the very interesting system of incentives that Ian has prepared for incentivizing miners to use renewable energies. So thanks a lot for watching everyone. It was a great conversation. I'm Giovanni, your host.