As we approach the EOS mainnet launch, we’d like to provide you with a bit of an update on a few things on our minds and in our plans.
Mainnet launch
What an exciting time to be a part of EOS! With the imminent launch of the EOS mainnet, everyone here at Aloha EOS is working hard to continue to keep our infrastructure bulletproof and highly performant in the tests. To date, we have successfully tested and produced in all of the EOSIO-BIOS group boot stages beginning with stage 7 and will continue collaborating with the other teams to ensure a smooth launch. We are all systems go!
When we think of the EOS community, we think it goes to show what can be accomplished when a dedicated group of individuals comes together to work on a common goal.
Building a Bridge
Our tagline is Bridging North America to all points West. Let’s break this down a bit. Hawaii is a fantastic connector from the West coast of North America to various continents Southwest, West and Northwest of the island chain. New Zealand and Australia are connected by The Southern Cross Cable which also runs through Fiji and Hawaii and back to the West Coast of the United States. Additional cable systems link Hawaii with Guam, the Philippines and Indonesia such as the SEA-US system. The New Cross Pacific Cable system connects through to China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan. The Telstra Endeavour cable system runs between Sydney and Hawaii. Finally, several more cable systems are being placed through Hawaii such as the Tasman Global Access cable, the Hawaiki Cable and the Moana Cable, which will connect New Zealand to Hawaii through Samoa and American Samoa. We think that our being an EOS block producer - sitting between continents as we do - will help provide the lowest latency and best performance to applications on the growing EOS network.
Island Energy
One of the darker aspects of crypto-currency mining that many people may not be aware of is the tremendous amount energy use required to “mine” the currency. For example, at the time of this writing, according to the Digiconomist, the estimated power draw of Bitcoin mining is a whopping 69.4 TWh a year! This use is on par with the use of the entire Czech Republic. Another way of looking at it is that 6,425,533 U.S. households could be powered by the energy consumed by Bitcoin mining. One of the things that we love about EOS is that it uses a delegated proof-of-stake mechanism which is starkly different from the proof-of-work aspect that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies employ, which ultimately creates the necessary but wasteful power draw they require. On a related note, our electricity comes from a state that is very cognizant of its power use. Hawaii leads all other states in the U.S. in almost every renewable electricity category. 33% of its electricity comes from rooftop solar and it has 60 utility-scale renewable energy projects. Finally, we are excited that the Hawaii state legislature is targeting 100% renewable energy by 2045.
Charitable Efforts
We received a very positive response to our Hawaii Island Volcanic relief plans, so we've decided to pick our second charity to work with. As some of you may know, Puerto Rico continues to struggle to recover from the devastation that hurricane Maria left in its wake in September of 2017. Total loss from the hurricane is estimated to be upwards of $91.6 billion, mostly in Puerto Rico. Through some research, we’ve found an organization named B Strong which has been providing significant recovery aid to those in need of assistance in Puerto Rico. We look forward to contributing to B Strong’s cause.
Until next time, Aloha!