ENVION - World’s Most Profitable Standard of Self-Expanding Crypto Infrastructure

When cryptomining was still in its infancy, it was well distributed among a couple of thousand private miners, governed by transparent rules and not harmful to the climate because its energy requirements were microscopic. All that has changed: the exponential growth of cryptocurrencies has led to a dramatic increase in the sector’s energy consumption and a concentration of mining activities in countries with low social and environmental standards - where electricity is produced using predominantly fossil fuels. Even worse, the concentration of mining power in the hands of a couple of large corporations is distorting the formerly democratic decision-making process in these networks: changes in protocols and hard forks are in danger of being influenced by the economic interests of a few.

Envion has developed a system of Mobile Mining Units (MMUs) that can tap electricity directly at the source: at hydro, solar, wind and fossil power plants in every corner of the planet. Our MMUs are based on standard intermodal (sea) containers, equipped with mining hardware, communication and industry 4.0 automation features, remote control capabilities and a break-through cooling system that only makes up ~1% of the system‘s total energy consumption. Altogether it’s a high-tech solution that can be seamlessly deployed globally and allows us to use the cleanest and cheapest energy mix wherever it is available.

The flexibility of the MMU system helps us to fuse two of the most important sectors of the 21st century: blockchain technology and renewable energies. Using the dynamics of exponential growth for both, we promote climate preservation and the welfare of our token holders. It is the physical incarnation of the blockchain spirit: a robust and decentralized system that can withstand disruptions in government policies, price structures and the energy supply.

The solution envion provides has all the necessary competitive advantages, follows a decentralized approach and provides voting rights for an experience that has been under pressure from the concentration of mining power.

THE CHALLENGE

The crypto mining business model is highly dependent on the energy supply. The price and availability of electric power are the two most important factors for mining companies.

On a macro level, the hunt for cheap energy has lead to a concentration of mining operations in countries with low socio-economic and environmental standards, and therefore cheap fossil electricity. As a negative consequences of this low-cost, “dirty” energy, the mining of cryptocurrencies significantly contributes to climate change. The concentration of mining operations in a few authoritarian countries meanwhile, undermines the distributed ledger system and increases the risk of manipulations.

On a micro level, miners have become vulnerable to energy price fluctuations and regulatory changes. The competitive advantage of many companies in this sector depends on the willingness of a handful of regimes to tolerate cryptocurrencies, keep energy prices low and maintain friendly regulations. That is, obviously, the business model of an industry in its early stages.

Next generation mining operations will be climate friendly, more resilient against local price fluctuations and regulatory changes, more profitable and more decentralized. Consequently envion’s technology-driven business model, which combines green energy sources with economic viability on a global scale, is part of this next generation.

OUR VISION

We believe that system innovation is imperative in order for cryptocurrencies to gain mass acceptance. We believe that future mining operations need to be decentralized to reduce their dependency on regulations from single governments, powerful individuals, and fossil or nuclear energy.

Future crypto-mining operations need to reduce the systemic risks that result from being bound to certain coins or mining pools. Thus, envion strives to hand the decisive power back to the crypto-community. It must be possible for individuals to take part in crypto-mining without tremendous investments in hardware and technology. Besides broad ownership of mining operations, envion strives to involve the community in making decisions about key mining decisions. We therefore strive to reduce the hurdles for larger audiences to take part in the crypto-community.

By offering anyone the ability to take part in securing the future of the blockchain technology, envion is laying the foundation for the future of crypto mining by designing highly mobile low-maintenance mining units and by offering our community the right to vote for mining locations and for coin choices.

ENVION MINING WORKER

The smallest element in envion’s ecosystem is the mining worker. This can be an ASIC, a GPU-based mining rig or other possible future mining or cloud-computing engines.

MINING HARDWARE

The first generation of the envion MMU contains the envion rig, which is an optimized mining device configured for optimal ROI efficiency. With this goal in mind, we over- or underclock GPUs, test dual-mining strategies, and reduce overhead by the operating system. New mining configurations based on this hardware can be published to all running instances worldwide by our envion UMC (Unified Mining Cloud) automatically. More detailed information with regard to hardware optimization can be found in chapter Mining Excellence (page 45).

HARDWARE MAINTENANCE

One central asset of our Mobile Mining Units is that they keep maintenance costs and efforts minimal. There are fully automated systems in place which detect defective rigs, based on IP address and rig denotations, so that any maintenance worker is able to locate defective hardware within a very limited amount of time. Envion is already able to instantly detect defective GPUs on a software basis when they stop performing their intended tasks at the desired performance rate. Now, we have taken a further step by altering BIOS names of GPUs (unique identifiers) and equipping GPUs with LEDs that translate software-based issue detection into physical signals, allowing even uninstructed maintenance workers gain the ability to quickly and reliably detect and replace defective hardware.

These mechanics are merely a fragment of the efforts that envion has undertaken in order to ensure minimal maintenance; the entire MMU has been designed so that anyone with a basic understanding of hardware and software processes can operate them with little guidance. For instance, all mining units are configured in a plug‘n‘play style, indicating that they start up as soon as electricity and internet connection are available. Furthermore, all rigs are equipped with LED strips, so that it is clearly visible when one particular section of an MMU loses electricity, networking or other functionality, simplifying repairs.

Generally speaking, a certain number of GPUs will stop mining after a certain amount of time, but there’s a simple fix for that: every MMU has a randomized reboot schedule which reboots the mining rigs in order to safeguard performance, minimize maintenance operations, reduce the load on GPUs and improve heat management. This approach is highly favourable in contrast to the sole remaining viable solution, which is to not bring the hardware to its limits, but that could lead to much lower performance, which in turn would lead to a lower ROI for the envion community. On the process side, the declared goal of envion is to highly standardize all maintenance operations. This means that maintenance operations are guided and controlled by our software infrastructure that provides clear prioritization, visual guidance, effective control & benchmarking and escalation of all maintenance operations.

MMU CONFIGURATIONS

MMUs can be configured either with traditional ASIC workers or with our proprietary GPU-based rigs. The patent-pending cooling system includes specific options for both, ASIC- and GPU-based workers, which can be installed at fixed or yet to be determined ratios. The main configurations are depicted below in table 1 and figure 3, where an ASIC worker-fraction of 0, 50, or 100 % is depicted. Due to the nature of an air-cooled system, we have created a “medium (power) density” (< 50 KW), a “high density” (60-85 KW) and an ultra-high density (137 KW; ASIC-only) MMU version for each configuration. The implementation of a medium-density MMU version allows deployment of our containers even to regions with outstandingly high ambient air temperatures. Our prototype is of high-power density .

MMU configurations. Different configurations of our MMUs with ASIC and GPU workers are presented. Representative configurations of 100% GPU workers, 100% ASIC workers and a 50/50 mix (based on power consumption) were chosen and are compared in the above table.

MMU configurations. Representative drawings of our different MMU configurations demonstrating

configurations with A) 100 % ASIC workers, B) 100 % GPU workers, C) a combination of ASIC and GPU workers. D) 100 % ASIC workers in UHD configuration.

SOFTWARE

To ensure unprecedented performance, we created our own envion operating system

(EOS) to run on our mining rigs. EOS is Linux-based and optimized for low overhead, high

performance, scalability, and stability.

envion operating system (EOS)

Whenever a system is brought online, it initially receives an IP address from the network. Based on a configurable URL, it sends initial status information on startup which registers the envion rig in the ecosystem (see UUC - Unified Unit Control, page 32). EOS updates the ecosystem in frequent intervals. The operating system is furthermore able to recognize GPU failures and can set LED indicators to support maintenance work. If a GPU fails, EOS instantly pushes messages to the network in the standardized envion communication format (ECF). With the help of an integrated, secured REST-API, the mining rig is able to receive additional information and instructions.

envion RIG REST API

These details ensure that an envion rig is completely modular, including its EOS. This means that wherever an envion rig is installed, it will start connecting to the network, send information and statuses, and begin to take up the work.

The envion rig receives frequent software updates, ensuring that it adheres to the best performing mining strategies by default. Of course, this can be interrupted and changed on each rig as defined and requested by the UMC (see Unified Mining Cloud). The process of flashing the EOS onto the new SSDs used for the envion rig is done during the build-pipeline. This semi-automated process can be massively scaled to meet the requirements of any particular application of the mining system. When the EOS is started, it automatically sends requests to the UMC cloud for newer versions of EOS and will begin updating.

ENVION MINING RACK

All racks are designed to meet the central goal of maximizing the gross energy efficiency of the whole unit. This involves optimizing arrangement of the different components at defined heights inside the racks, allowing for optimal airflow through the air ducts to reach all components that require cooling.

MODULARITY
EXPANDABILITY
COOLING OPTIMIZATION

MAINTAINABILITY

To ensure maximum flexibility and maintainability, all racks are placed on rails that have been welded into the container during initial production. This enables precision movement of the racks along the short horizontal axis of the container, allowing for an optimal adjustment of rack-to-rack distances as well as ideal positioning for maintenance.

Due to the modular design of each rack, modifications to the layout will trigger the envion operating system to execute automatic connection routing that ensure a seamless connection of the modular rack with the envion network upon connection to the power line.

The end result is an easily maintainable, cost-efficient, expandable rack which can be deployed into a Mobile Mining Unit without any on-site configuration.

Cooling system & arrangement of hardware. Two large diameter fans decrease pressure inside the container, resulting in directional inflow of cool air through ventilation ducts. Archive racks on rails are used to host the hardware.

ICO DETAILS

The EVN token is an ERC-20 standard-based Ethereum token. EVN tokens grant their holders the right to:

1. receive 100% of the earnings of our proprietary mining operation in two steps:

• 75% payed out immediately

• 25% reinvested to boost future payouts

2. receive 35% of envion‘s earnings from mining by third-party operations

3. voting and veto in important decisions of the company’s strategy

Tokens will be offered for 31 days, starting on December 15th, 2017 and ending on January 14th, 2018.

EVN ICO is conducted by envion - the first mobile - mining solution in the world - targeting energy at its very source. The offering will be open to the global public. Restrictions apply for residents of Germany and US-based investors.

Token Issue Volume max. 150 millions tokens not distributed shall not be generated

Token Price at Issue 1 USD

Distribution 83% token holders

10% founder team

5% envion AG as reserve

2% bounty program

Website www.envion.org

Accepted form of payment BTC, ETH, credit cards

ICO Start Date December 15, 2017, 12 PM GMT

ICO End Date January 14, 2018, 11:59 PM GMT

Discounts time period token price

15.12 (12PM GMT) - 17.12 (11:59:59AM GMT) $0.70

17.12 (12PM GMT) - 21.12 (11:59:59AM GMT) $0.80

21.12 (12PM GMT) - 28.12 (11:59:59AM GMT) $0.90

28.12 (12PM GMT) - 14.01 (11:59:59PM GMT) $1.00

Token Issue Date January 15, 2018, 12 PM GMT

Use of proceeds 91% Investment in Mobile Mining Units (MMUs)

9% Research & Development and Administration

RESTRICTIONS FOR INVESTORS

We are convinced that the global community deserves a share in the profits of crypto mining - not just a handful of anonymous players from oligopolistic cartels in authoritarian societies. We believe that crypto mining should be a decentralized, democratic, and evenly distributed operation - one that is open to everyone who is willing to support the network and benefit from it.

Based on these principles we have created the EVN token. This grants investors the right to receive the full pay-out of our proprietary mining operation. As a consequence, the EVN token can be classified as a security in most jurisdictions. In compliance US security laws, holding a token is strictly limited to three categories of investors:

Investors who

do not hold a US passport;
are not in possession of a US Greencard;
have no residence in the United States.

accredited investors under the US Securities Act, Regulation D, Rule 506, i.e. investors with a networth of more than $1m, excluding their primary residence, or with a net income of more than $200.000 (if married a combined income of $300.000).

investors whose residency lies in Germany are limited to investments above 200.000€

SEC guidelines concerning Regulation D, Rule 506(c) demand that the issuer undertakes „reasonable steps“ to secure that investors meet the above mentioned criteria. In the envion ICO we apply the SEC safe harbour verification: investors have to submit a scanned confirmation by a securities attorney or certified public accountant that the investor is indeed verified as accredited. If such confirmation is not submitted funds already transferred shall be remitted to the investors wallet or bank account.

These restrictions on holding tokens contradict our idea of giving everyone a fair chance to participate in our crypto-mining operation and the competitive advantages of the Mobile Mining Unit (MMU) system. However, we have to comply with security laws and regulations. In order to reconcile these regulations with our concept of fairness, we are already working hard to turn the token into a publicly tradable asset. Right after the ICO, envion will begin preparing a prospectus, register with the SEC and apply for a listing as a security token on regulated exchanges. Afterward, the EVN token will finally be accessible for everyone - provided the SEC gives the green light.

TOKENS

EVN Tokens are based on the ERC20 protocol, which determines that up to 150 million tokens will be issued with a nominal price of $1. The final allocation is set up as follows: