When Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak introduced cryptocurrency Efforce (with token name WOZX) all reporters had to ask so many questions to get explanations. Wozniak started the new company Efforce, 45 years after co-founding Apple with Steve Jobs, but this time his primary focus is on green tech based on blockchain. Our goal in Blockalive was simply to write Efforce review, collect as many dots as possible to give you a clear a strong overview of token WOZX.
EFFORCE is the first Energy Savings Company (ESCO) that uses blockchain to enable the trading of energy savings on its platform.
What does it mean?
Efforce is supposed to act as a digital marketplace that companies can use to raise funding for energy-efficiency projects. This might include switching to low-energy LED lighting or adopting a better manufacturing process to save on electricity. The projects track its efficiency and obtained data are sent to the blockchain. A platform is a crowdfunding place where investors put money into energy projects and benefit from the energy savings. For the first time, it allows anyone to access tokenized energy savings worldwide.
Still not catching it?
The project is not easy to understand and that’s why we wanted to write Efforce review that will help you understand how the platform and token WOZX work.
We shouldn’t invest without knowing what is going on. Investing based on FOMO (fear of missing out) is very dangerous and it won’t end usually well.
Is Efforce the next Tesla?
Efforce company is not similar to Tesla. Efforce doesn’t build electric cars and it hasn’t any connection to autonomous driving or the automotive market. But still, there is one small similarity – energy efficiency and potential for growth.
When we heard that Efforce project is about the energy market we jumped with a smile.
Even without knowing the precise numbers, we felt that an energy market has extraordinary potential. As you will see down below, the numbers speak even louder for a change. The revolution in the energy efficiency market is inevitable.
There hasn’t been a successful project in the sector for a while, especially there is no famous name connected with the issue of energy consumption. Of course, we know the philanthropy and activities of Bill Gates, but except for him, there isn’t much talking.
Fighting with climate change is one of the biggest challenges for the next generations. But we need to start today to see any changes tomorrow.
There is one more name connected with the topic of climate change and the biggest challenges. It is Elon Musk. He builds Tesla, an electric car, and SpaceX, reusable rockets that will get humans to Mars one day. Musk is a bitcoin believer and time to time promotes the cryptocurrency on his Twitter account.
Efforce took our attention and we wanted to dive deep to understand if the project is the next Tesla. The main goal of Efforce is to reduce energy consumption. They introduce smart and innovative solutions.
The great thing is that we can participate in the success of the project. Cryptocurrency allows to buy and gain profit from the growth of the project. Efforce with WOZX is no different.
But before investing, let’s see what we found out in the Efforce review. There are a few cons and pros for investors that they should consider before putting any money into the project.
What is Efforce
EFFORCE is a blockchain-based energy saving trading platform. The platform brings together those who want to improve the energy efficiency of their buildings or industrial processes with a pool of contributors interested in investing in energy projects. Investors (contributors) will be repaid in tokens representing the energy savings achieved thanks to efficiency improvement projects.
World’s energy system
To understand what Efforce does and what problems can solve, we must do a little introduction into the world energy system.
The Energy Efficiency market is a complex financial system. Its important role play Energy Service Companies (E.S.Co), that are linking between the financing partners and those in need of investments to improve the energy efficiency.
Why do we care so much about energy efficiency?
Remember Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty created by the United Nations to reduce carbon emissions to fight climate change? The Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1997 and by today it had received 84 signatures. The treaty introduces Carbon Credits.
One carbon credit is equal to one tonne of carbon dioxide, or in some markets, carbon dioxide equivalent gases. It was the beginning of carbon trading.
The European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), was the first large greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme in the world and remains the biggest. It was launched in 2005 to fight global warming and is a major pillar of EU energy policy.
The price of Carbon Credits in 2020 was between $10 to $30. The World Bank’s data comes out with a similar price across its 61 jurisdictions at $20.11 per tonne.
The goal of the carbon market is to allow market mechanisms to drive industrial and commercial processes in the direction of low emissions or less carbon intensive approaches than those used when there is no cost to emitting carbon dioxide and other GHGs into the atmosphere.
Energy efficiency is a costly environment and companies often don’t have enough money so they look for investors. Energy Service Companies can connect them with investors/financing partners.
From 2000 to 2016, Japan imported 20% less oil and 23% less natural gas than it would have done in the same period without energy efficiency interventions. Germany and the United Kingdom, which correspond to the largest gas markets in Europe, have achieved a reduction in imports of natural gas from Russia equal to 30% of the European total.
– Source: Efforce Whitepaper
How much money we are talking? Accessing a complex energy efficiency system requires a minimum investment of 200,000 euros. That’s why today’s market needs Energy Service Companies to finance initial costs.
History of Efforce
Steve Wozniak stated in December 2020 in Yahoo inteview that he has been working on the project in stealth for a couple of years.
I’ve been working in stealth with this group for a couple of years. I am in an engineering role, contributing to the blockchain thinking and accessibility of WOZX. I am proud that we are going with the WOZX name.
A couple of years are at least two years. So it is not clear if Steve Wozniak was at the very beginning of the project or if he is the idea-maker, but he was in when the project was a really small baby. Far away from the first private sale of its tokens.
Efforce project was grown from the Italian company Aither CO2. It was found in 2010 that defines its mission as Your partner in the world’s environmental and energy markets.
The websites are in maintenance mode and a new website is coming. So let’s hope they will launch soon a new website with all the necessary information for investors who are keen to do their due diligence.
But if you look up Aither CO2 LinkedIn profile and read their profile bio, you will see the similarity of what Efforce vision is.
AitherCO2 S.p.A is a leading provider of financial services to the world’s environmental and energy markets offering consultancy and trading solutions. We support companies subject to regulatory obligations as well as those operating voluntarily in the environmental markets to deal with administration, deadlines, registries, regulation changes and balance sheet optimization of allocated units. We provide market access for industrial and aviation clients both on the regulated exchanges as well as through our vast counterparty network.
So what does company Aither CO2 really do?
AitherCO2 simply buys, sells, and offers trading services of energy and carbon allowances issued to European companies by the European Union.
It is not exactly what Efforce aims to do, but it is one of its parts indeed.
Efforce platform
The Efforce platform is an energy credits marketplace. The platform is still not open to the public at the time of writing. According to a roadmap, the platform is in beta testing.
So far we know that Efforce platform will be a crucial role in energy trading. There will be three parties as described in the whitepaper.
- Contributors
- Savers
- Consumers
The Contributors are those who access the auctions on Efforce platform to purchase future savings. In other words, the contributors are the investors.
The Savers are the owners of industries and other energy systems that benefit from improvement projects.
The Consumers are those who want to buy the energy savings generated by third parties to offset and reduce their electricity bills.
There are some requirements for energy projects that will be listed on Efforce platform. Energy projects are proposed by Savers. Each of the projects must contain:
- The costs
- The percentage of savings shared with Contributors through the Energy Performance Smart Contract
- The duration of the Energy Performance Smart Contract
- The amount of savings generated
- The duration of the auction period
- The intrinsic return of the operation
The Contributors will have the right to access the auctions on Efforce platform to support innovative energy efficiency projects. The contributors will obtain in return the energy savings generated.
EFFORCE uses its blockchain trading platform to allow anyone in the world to fund energy savings projects for return on investment.
How does Efforce work
- Before carrying out an energy efficiency project, any entity that owns an energy system pays its bill to a private or state-owned supplier of electricity and gas.
- The E.S.Co evaluates the energy systems owned by the Beneficiary and implements them, in order to invest its financial resources in redevelopment interventions or energy efficiency improvement of plants or buildings.
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For the entire duration of the contract, the Beneficiary pays a part of the energy savings generated to the E.s.Co. This gives a return on the initial investment.
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At the end of the contract, the Beneficiary can take full advantage of the savings and the technology installed.
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The financial investment is fully borne by the E.S.Co. The Beneficiary obtains an immediate guaranteed reduction of energy costs and, at the end of the contract, benefits from a new and already installed efficiency improvement intervention.
Examples of energy redevelopment
- Replace the lighting system.
- Insulate the walls and roof.
- Improve the heating and cooling system.
Market evaluation
In the last 10 years, energy consumption and CO2 emissions worldwide have grown exponentially, leading to climate change and extreme consequences to our environment.
According to a study published by the International Energy Agency (IEA), investments in energy efficiency increased by 9% in 2017. This growth rate remained constant and in the same year, the energy efficiency market reached a record value of USD 241 billion.
To give you an idea of how big the impact can be, the 1.2% improvement in energy intensity in 2018 equated to around $1.6 trillion more GDP for the amount of energy used compared to 2017.
More than 68% of the energy used in the world is not covered by an efficient energy standard. To achieve sustainable development we need to reach the required 3,6% growth in global energy improvements.
Efforce wants to help with that milestone. EFFORCE will improve the way we use energy enabling meaningful change.
Problems
Lack of awareness
Financial institutions do not have adequate training and therefore hinder the provision of capital, preferring investments in renewable energy rather than in Energy Efficiency.
Lack of capital
The difficulty in obtaining the necessary capital forces ESCo to borrow in order to complete projects. An unsustainable solution, since they have a limit on the credit granted by financial institutions. For this reason, ESCos have to wait until the end of an efficiency cycle to recover the capital and start new projects. Efforce brings more investors into space and sets up a crowdfunding process for the projects that are reviewed and approved.
Lack of transparency
The transmission of energy-saving data is often carried out with manual systems or with electronic statistical surveys on centralized servers, which can be modified by third parties. If the data cannot be certified, there is no certainty of performance and financial return. Efforce is based on blockchain that guarantees the integrity and uniqueness of the obtained data. It’s the most transparent model nowadays.
The quantity of KWh saved that we will see on Efforce platform will be blockchain-proved.
Lack of a platform
Only a few companies and subjects have access to this market. The lack of a global platform to invest in energy efficiency projects excludes millions of potential investors. Efforce platform wants to provide a place where investors and companies in need of energy improvements meet.
Solution
“Efforce allows business owners to safely register their energy upgrade project on the web and secure funding from all types of investors around the world. The companies will then have more available cash to use for other critical projects such as infrastructure or hiring,” Jacopo Visetti, project lead and co-founder of Efforce said in a statement for CNBC.
Efforce plans to work with energy service companies (ESCOs), that arrange to finance energy-saving projects. Efforce then will evaluate the investment, calculate the anticipated savings, and then come up with a contract that’ll detail the returns for both the company and investors.
The platform then lists the project for crowd contribution. The business model is reward-based crowdfunding. The high number of intermediaries and parties involved in energy efficiency system add more costs. The crowdfunding process brings the two most important parties closer together and reduces unnecessary intermediaries costs.
To overcome the hurdles, companies can use Efforce to receive crowdfunding. Efforce’s core business proposition is to allow participants to make money while developing and contributing to environment-saving energy efficiency initiatives.
Moreover, countries could therefore avoid additional expenses and risks related to energy imports.
The start-up (The Savers) will use special meters to measure the energy savings from the project. Data will be logged on the WOZX blockchain and will be visible on Efforce platform.
Blockchain will be used to record real energy-saving achievements these then being awarded as credits in megawatt-hours for sale or consumption. In other words, any savings made will be distributed into the investor’s profile as energy credits.
The energy savings generated become a tangible asset. Contributors that are rewarded with free energy savings can keep it, sell it or use it to offset their energy consumption.
The Whitepaper says: Furthermore, 1% of the energy savings obtained in this way and certified by the Energy Performance Smart Contract are donated and distributed among all EFFORCE Contributors.
Even though it is mentioned few times in Whitepaper, it is not clear how the 1% will be generated.
Efforce token
The EFFORCE (WOZX) token is a fixed-cap ERC-20 standard cryptocurrency on Ethereum.
An ERC20 token is a blockchain-based asset with similar functionality to bitcoin, ether, and bitcoin cash: it can hold value and be sent and received.
EFFORCE is the name of the token, and WOZX is the symbol.
- Token Name: EFFORCE
- Token Symbol: WOZX
- Total WOZX Token Amount: 1,000,000,000
- Emission Rate: New Tokens will never be created.
The issuer of Efforce token is EFFORCE Limited, a Bahamas based company limited by shares, formed for the purpose of issuing EFFORCE tokens on behalf of its controlling entity EFFORCE Ltd, a Malta company
Token utility:
- Offset your energy bills
- Transfer of energy savings
- Primary access to Energy Efficiency projects
- Accumulate Energy Savings Value
Token allocation
- Private Placement: 45% = 450.000.000 WOZX
- EFFORCE Ltd: 20% = 200.000.000 WOZX
- Incentive for Mining: 20% = 200.000.000 WOZX
- Ecosystem and Consultants: 15% = 150.000.000 WOZX (No more than 1.5% are released monthly.)
Unfortunately, there is no mention of how long is a lock-up period for tokens generated for private placement.
WOZX ICO
450 million Efforce tokens WOZX were sold during a private sale in June 2019. There wasn’t any public ICO.
The company says investors have given it a valuation of $80 million valuations in private sales.
Regular investors could buy WOZX the first day when WOZX was listed on HBTC exchange.
The Efforce Whitepaper mentions that WOZX token sale might launch via IEO (Initial Exchange Offering) after Private Placement. There has already been a private sale so we might see Efforce IEO launch in the future.
Efforce price. WOZX price
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The WOZX token’s initial price might be 0.1 dollars at the time of private sale.
Efforce listed the token under the symbol WOZX on Dec. 3. on HBTC crypto exchange. It reached $950M in the first 13 minutes, 10 times the listing price.
The price reached 3.6 dollars per token and within few days, the crypto’s price increasing in value by thousands of percent. WOZX token was one of the best-performing crypto assets in 2020.
By the end of the year 2020, the price dropped to $1.22 and since then it slowly continued to climb.
Efforce WOZX all-time high is $3.6.
Buy Efforce on HBTC crypto exchange
All cryptocurrencies including Efforce WOZX are highly volatile, which is worth noting.
Efforce (WOZX) is not listed on Binance, yet. Efforce (WOZX) is not listed on Coinbase. There is no official statement that would give any specific details if or when Efforce will be listed on any other major cryptocurrency exchange.
Solely my opinion is that Efforce won’t be listed on Coinbase in 2021. There is a chance that Efforce will be listed on Binance in 2021. We can see on the public roadmap that their goal for 1Q 2021 is to be listed in the Tier-1 crypto exchange. Efforce was recently listed on Bithumb, a Korean cryptocurrency exchange, but I think that was not the exchange they aimed for.
It might not be Binance exchange, but more probably the Huobi exchange. Efforce made a strategic partnership with Huobi in 2020.
Thank you @HuobiGlobal and @LeonHuobi for the birthday wishes !!!
@EfforceOfficial and I are very pleased to be partnering with Huobi as we expand our revolutionary worldwide Energy Efficiency Platform. Together we will build a better world.— Steve Wozniak (@stevewoz) August 13, 2020
Today, Efforce token WOZX is trading on HBTC crypto exchange (with the highest volume/liquidity). For buying and trading, WOZX is HBTC recommended as an exchange.
Related projects
Energy Web Token (EWT)
Energy Web Token (EWT) is the native token of the Energy Web Chain.
The Energy Web Chain was launched in June 2019 by Energy Web Foundation. They develop and deploy open-source decentralized technologies—the Energy Web Decentralized Operating System (EW-DOS)—with our global community of more than 100 energy market participants. EW-DOS includes front-end applications and a variety of software development toolkits focused on decentralized identities, renewable energy markets, and grid integration of distributed energy resources. It’s all anchored by the Energy Web Chain, the first open-source, enterprise blockchain platform tailored to the energy sector.
Power Ledger (POWR)
Power Ledger is a blockchain-enabled software platform for trading renewable energy and environmental commodities.
There are many other projects focusing on the energy sector in the cryptocurrency space, but most of them are on the very first page of its development. We mention at least a few more so you can deep dive if interested:
- WePower (WPR)
- Electrify.Asia (ELEC)
Efforce team
- Jacopo Visetti: Project Lead / Co-Founder
- Jacopo Vanetti: CTO & Tech Expert / Co-Founder
- Steve Wozniak: Engineer / Co-Founder
- Ken Hardesty: Co-Founder
- Stefano Scozzese: Head of Communication / Co-Founder
- Sergio Carloni: CEO
- Andrea Castiglione: Investor Relations / Co-Founder
- Corrado Catania: Director
Steve Wozniak (Twitter verified) is a person who attracts the most attention. Efforce project got in the media’s headlines thanks to Woz.
Steve Wozniak
Steve Wozniak, also known by his nickname “Woz”, founded Apple with Steve Jobs in 1976. Today, Apple is a huge success and has a market cap of more than $2 trillion.
After leaving Apple in 1985 he pursued several other businesses and philanthropic ventures throughout his career, focusing largely on technology. Don’t be mistaken, Steve Wozniak set up a few companies since he left Apple. Efforce is not the only one. You can check CL-9, Wheels of Zeus or Woz U, the Education as a Service model design business with educational technology courses.
Steve Wozniak is a big believer in Bitcoin and hopes that it will become a global currency. As he revealed to CNBC, he bought Bitcoin when the price was $700.
“I remember getting interested in bitcoin some time ago,” Wozniak told CNBC in 2017. “It was $70 for a bitcoin, man and I went online and you had to have a special bank account at a special bank and I couldn’t buy any bitcoin so I gave up. Eventually, I got some of them at the $700 stage….”
He bought Bitcoin only to experiment with the technology. He is not a bitcoin investor, the price volatility stressed him out, as he said, and he sold all of his Bitcoin except one BTC. Wozniak also owns two Ether (ETH).
“Part of my happiness is not to have worries, so I sold it all — just got rid of it — except just enough to still experiment with,” Wozniak says.
“I had bitcoin to experiment with and when it shot up high, I said, ‘I don’t want to become one of those people that watches it, watches it and cares about the number.’ I don’t want that kind of care in my life,” Wozniak says to an audience at the Nordic Business Forum in Sweden on January 24.
Efforce Roadmap
Efforce concept was born in September of 2017. Private sales opens in June 2019 and the same year was a big blockchain event in Malta (Delta Summit in Malta) where Efforce was introduced to many investors publicly. That was the first time when Steve Wozniak mentioned Efforce to the public.
The year 2020 was the most significant for developing an Efforce platform. The team reached a milestone by the end of the year when Efforce token (WOZX) was listed on HBTC, a cryptocurrency exchange.
Roadmap for 2021
Efforce published its updated roadmap for 2021. It’s a 15-page PDF document with sections for Q1 2021 and Q2/Q4 2021. Compare to other projects, we have to say that Efforce’s roadmap is not very precise. It would be better for investors to see what steps are in the plan in particular quarters.
The good thing is that the team announced regular public streams on the 20th day of each month. The virtual gatherings are for the community and investors to better understand what is going on in development and discuss the annual Roadmap in depth.
One of the main goals for Q1 2021 is to list Efforce token at Tier-1 crypto exchange. I think this might be a big push for the price.
We are excited to see the results from beta testing the Efforce platform V1.0. There are 150 community members in beta testing.
Efforce team hopes that they build their global presence by 2026.
Where Can You Buy EFFORCE (WOZX)?
The top exchanges for trading in WOZX token (EFFORCE) are currently:
- HBTC
- Bithumb
- Xtheta Global
- WBF Exchange
- Uniswap (V2)
On 1st January 2021, WOZX token was listed on Bithumb, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Korea.
Efforce Whitepaper
A 54-page whitepaper explains not only how Efforce works, but gives us a market overview with predictions for future developments.
We used the whitepaper during our research a lot. It gives us many answers to the important questions of how the heck Efforce work and what brings to the market. The whitepaper is still a bit technical, especially in the part of explaining how the token works and how energy savings is tokenized. So we create our in-depth analysis to make the whole Efforce project more understandable.
Two real projects coming
AitherCO2 will put the first projects that can be implemented on the platform. There are some on the Efforce team list, but it’s great that they mentioned two of them just to give investors an idea.
Energy efficiency project on a dual 8.55MW industrial tri-generation plant located in Italy, with a total cost of 6,500,000 euros, with an annual IRR of 20% for 7 years.
Energy redevelopment project for a hotel complex costing 1,350,000 euros located on the French Riviera (France), with an annual IRR of 15% for 5 years.
You can check the Whitepaper and see more details about those projects.
It was also stated that the first efficiency project will be completed in Q3 2020 and it will be the beginning of energy efficiency sharing.
Official channels
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/EfforceOfficial
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EFFORCE/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyAERa6rvHqI-mwoCRlqQPA
- Medium: https://efforce.medium.com/
How to buy WOZX
The first major exchange to list WOZX was HBTC.
- Register on HBTC crypto exchange
- Deposit fiat or cryptocurrency
- Buy USDT / BTC
- Trade USDT / WOZX or BTC / WOZX
HBTC offers Bitcoin (BTC) and Tether (USDT) trading pairs for WOZX.
How to store WOZX
WOZX is an ERC-20 token so it can be stored on any wallet that supports Ethereum-based assets. You can choose from many software wallets or hardware wallets.
If you are planning to hold WOZX for a long time or your investment is bigger, your best options are hardware wallets that are safer, such as Trezor or Ledger.
Traders can consider software wallets (web or mobile version) such as Coinami, Exodus Wallet or Atomi Wallet.
Risks
Efforce don’t have GitHub
Efforce talks about transparency but it is a bit weird that they haven’t published their development on Github. It is common among cryptocurrency projects to let others check their GitHub development activity. Unfortunately, no one can publically see Efforce progress of development so that raises questions.
Not enough and not clear information
Honestly, it is quite hard to understand what Efforce does and imagine the whole process. They haven’t published much information. The whitepaper and Medium blog with a couple of articles is just not enough for many investors.
Not good communication and PR
There are some articles on Yahoo and CNBC news, but all of them are about Steve Wozniak’s opinion.
What we found is a not well-managed Facebook page that has few bad reviews. There will be haters and trolls for sure, but Efforce team should at least give some comments and write down some words to those reviews. Social media are about communication, not a monologue.
Reddit community
At the end of December 2020, there was some discussion on Reddit about an opinion on WOZX token. Most of the participants don’t have a very positive outlook on Efforce. They don’t like that Efforce doesn’t have a Github account and Uniswap pair.
We must update that, because WOZX has a Uniswap pair, at the time of writing (January 2021).
Also, there is an official statement from Steve Wozniak, that he is participating in the development of Efforce. That clears a lot for those who had doubts about shady and scammy content from real Wozniak.
Is WOZX a good investment?
Probably the main reason why you found this Efforce review is that you wanted to find out more about WOZX. Listing WOZX on crypto exchanges raising questions if the altcoin is worth buying or is just a shitcoin.
No doubt, Steve Wozniak brings lots of attention to the project. Investors should watch Efforce closely and look at fundamentals. That’s what we wanted to present to you within this review.
Hopefully, so far AitherCO2 looks like a good team with solid track records.
A token that holds the name after Steve Wozniak, that’s something. Don’t be mistaken, it is not automatically chosen to bring great profits to investors.
It might be true that Efforce can unlock a new marketplace for a cryptocurrency space. There isn’t any successful project in the energy sector yet.
Efforce project looks promising but it hasn’t showed its product yet. As a start-up, there is no functional MVP (minimum valuable product). The Efforce platform is still in beta testing. There weren’t any partnerships announced outside the crypto space. Compare to IOTA Foundation that launched MIOTA token for the Internet of Things communication looks Efforce like a baby.
There are always risks investing in cryptocurrency in an early stage. No doubt that Efforce and its token WOZX have many unanswered questions. It is definitely not an altcoin to invest with guaranteed success, we can’t rely only on one person even great as Steve Wozniak, or solely argue with great prepositions on the energy market. Risks are high, but after our research and writing the review, we think that the fundaments are not as bad as shitcoins. Efforce has a potential for growth as a blockchain start-up and also there is a great potential in price growth for investors.
Honestly, there aren’t many investors that look at fundamentals and today’s altcoin investors look for trendy tokens especially in an upcoming bull market. WOZX will be on the headlines sooner or later.
Disclaimer: The review is not paid and we are not in any cooperation with Efforce team. All content is provided solely for informational purposes and is not an offer to buy or sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any security, product, service, or investment. The opinions expressed in this site do not constitute investment advice and independent financial advice should be sought where appropriate.
