MBL | Pitch

PPPs: Week 3-6 🚀

We are a bit late in posting on here our updates so this is a summary of our PPPs thus far as well as our pitch for the project.
Our goal was to build a Proof of Concept and submit that in the allotted time.

Background

The U.S. Oil, a leading energy and transportation products distributor, needed a system to automate its petroleum products inventory reconciliation process. They use a series of manual processes that take significant time and are prone to human error. This extended their monthly process. In fact, team members spent approximately 260 hours each month reconciling, tracking down data, and fixing errors. With demanding reconciliation deadlines, the accounting team could not devote time to investigating the root causes of reconciliation issues and other project needs.

In recent years, there hasn’t been much going on in the business of Oil and Gas sales settlement. In fact, it would be fair to say that the market has been dead. But now things are heating up. Three major forces are changing the market.

Economic forces. Clients are experiencing decreases in revenues from the rise in inflation; As capital costs are growing and with more regulation on the horizon, due to environmental concerns even investment capital has been seriously lagging for the Industry as post-COVID demand for goods and services returns. These are prime examples of forces that have a significant impact on our business opportunities.

Social forces. Companies’ access to information is increasing due to the internet of things. Smart infrastructure increases the data available to operators but that data remains disconnected from the economic system and can not affect a settled payment. This maintains the need for accounting processes that are time-consuming and expensive and introduce the risk of fraud and error. These administrative costs are passed on to the end user which then drives political demand for more regulation and loss in investment.

Technology forces. Technological change can flatten existing business models and even entire industries because demand shifts from the old way of doing business to the NEW. By bringing advances of a decentralized payment network to Oil and Gas, this change becomes rapid and constant, allowing us to continuously increase the efficiency of markets while reducing the cost of business. Bitcoin and Lightning Network as technologies are so new we are the first to integrate and introduce them to the US Upstream and Midstream Industries.

Problem

Today, a significant disconnect exists between when and how hydrocarbons flow compared to when and how the payments for delivered products are settled. The disconnect results in cash lag, credit risk and increased energy costs.

Solution

MBL resolves these issues by integrating existing hardware and software in the energy industry with Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, an open-source, peer-to-peer payment technology. MBL’s platform offers revolutionary transaction capability and near-instant settlements. Synchronizing the custody exchange of energy with payments removes the financial overhead currently required in the administration of sales across the Upstream, Midstream, and Downstream sectors of the Energy Industry. Creating undue financial friction that can impede investment and innovation.

Enabling energy companies to settle transactions more frequently, based on real-time sensor data, reduces counterparty risk and the need for collateral. Combined with the reduction in overhead costs from automating legacy and piecemeal settlement processes, MBL can help lower the overhead and risks associated with manual accounting and settlement of hydrocarbons.

MBL will launch near real-time settlement service for Midstream companies, Upstream Operators, and other parties involved in the gathering and distribution of oil and gas, and energy early next year. Flexible transaction capabilities include oracle based pricing and simultaneous multi-party settlement. The service which includes custom Lightning Network hardware will be available for the broader energy industry starting in 2024.

Team 🔗

We are a group of Bitcoin Enthusiasts and Energy professionals that have come together to build on Lightning Network.

Jonathan Kohn https://github.com/bitpetro

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathankohn/

Tobalo Valderas https://github.com/tobalo

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristobaltorresvalderas

Kelly Slaughter https://github.com/kellyslaughter-tcu

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-t-slaughter/

Alex Myers https://github.com/endothermicdev

Conlee Davis https://www.linkedin.com/in/conlee-davis-07308760/

Mario Gutierrez https://www.linkedin.com/in/mario-andres-gutierrez/

Building In Public⚡️

Development quickly progressed after the Live Fort Bitcoin Lightning Day we hosted as part of the Legends of Lightning Hackathon IRL events.

Plans 📆

We will be testing the system in several steps outlined in our roadmap below

Progress ✅

POC system design was completed
POC Meter:

A GitHub organization and project was posted https://github.com/Meter-By-Lightning
The team discussed the final steps and equipment necessary for the POC test
The written Portion of the Business Plan began to take shape

Problems ✋

We need to test out all the different environments our customers will have in the field
The team is all in different locations so working together is a bit of a challenge