EDF blockchain subsidiary Exaion has become a ‘baker’ to validate transactions on the Tezos ecosystem.
EDF Group has become the first French corporate to participate in the ecosystem as a node or block validator.
The move indicates a strategic decision to utilise a protocol anchored in French scientific research, responsible in energy use and whose implementation is facilitated both by its open source philosophy and by the French R&D software developer Nomadic Labs’ technical support, a statement says.
Related articles:
Taking blockchain to carbon zero
EDF recognised for a leading role against climate change in Europe
Tezos is a third-generation decentralised blockchain dedicated to the creation and management of assets and distributed applications. The Tezos blockchain uses a consensus algorithm based on a liquid proof-of-stake mechanism, which is more energy efficient than the proof-of-work used by Bitcoin.
“Our choice to use the Tezos blockchain came naturally,” says Fatih Balyeli, CEO and cofounder of Exaion. “Baking on Tezos allows us to significantly reduce our energy consumption and is in line with our sustainable development policy while keeping a high quality digital offering.”
Exaion was created by EDF in January 2020 as a start-up specialising in blockchain and high performance cloud computing solutions. The company says that as digital is a highly energy intensive industry, it is committed to developing solutions to minimise the carbon footprint of its business and that of its customers.
Exaion offers supercomputing in the cloud and is currently preparing a ‘blockchain-as-a service’ offering based on blockchain protocol of choice and the company providing the computing and network infrastructure. A secure vault service for crypto-asset portfolios is due in this last quarter of 2020.
Tezos boasts a global community of validators, researchers and builders. Potential use cases for Tezos include the creation of smart contracts but so far, the uptake appears to have been limited and there are none – at least that have been publicised – in the energy sector. However, with EDF’s involvement that is likely to change.
As EDF also is a member of the Energy Web organisation, a potential collaboration between the two technologies could be on the cards.
Nomadic Labs is a Paris based R&D laboratory focussed on the development of the Tezos core software.