Bitcoin, since it is open source software and easily replicated by a programmer with a little spare time, has opened up to a whole new world of competitive decentralized currencies. One of the most recent to pop up on the altcoin radar is SolarCoin. Adding another level of complexity to a somewhat complex system, SolarCoin provides an interesting value proposition to those who use it. SolarCoin will be redeemable in Renewable Solar Energy Certificates. Much like the gold and silver bugs do, the creator of SolarCoin wants to instill in each coin mined an intrinsic value that can be claimed at any time by anyone holding the coin.

Each SolarCoin represents the generation of 1MWh of solar electricity, and the cryptocurrency can be used to pay for goods or services from individuals and businesses that accept it. SolarCoin, which is managed by the Open Currency Association (OCA) can be “earned” by solar power producers, can be mined (such as other cryptocurrencies are), or bought through an alternative currency exchange.

The goal of SolarCoin is to incentivize the global production of solar energy, which contrasts with some other alternative currencies, such as Bitcoin, which seeks a decentralized currency. The maximum issuance of SolarCoin is said to be about 98.1 billion (compare to Bitcoin’s maximum issuance of 21 million).

How the coin/electricity could be redeemed by businesses or individuals for actual energy is perhaps the last piece of the puzzle.

Read more at http://sustainablog.org/2014/01/digital-currency-backed-by-the-sun/

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Tyler Seamons

altcoin, alternative currency, bitcoin, solarcoin