GridPlus Mini Update: January 10, 2020
Happy new year from GridPlus! Our firmware team kept coding over the holidays to help push us towards the finish line— we’re getting excited for each of you to experience the Lattice1 for yourself. This blog post includes an update on their progress and a roundup of this month’s news.
Hardware Progress
With the hardware finalized, Dr. Kreder has been regularly visiting our contract manufacturer working out production details, performing quality assurance on produced units, and making certain that we’re ready to scalably produce Lattice1s to meet demand.
Back in the Austin office he also did some “highly scientific” stress testing of the finished product:
Karl will also be a featured speaker at Ethereal Summit New York this May 8–9 in Brooklyn. Early bird tickets go on sale soon so keep an eye on Ethereal’s Twitter feed for updates.
Firmware Progress
In last month’s update we outlined the remaining work needed for us to get the Lattice1 shipped:
- Logic functionality for how the Lattice1 manages SafeCard reader events requires further effort. Each SafeCard is a flexible cold storage device in its own right and there is a great deal of complexity in how the system is managing this extensibility. Work remains to make this powerful approach logical and intuitive for laypeople and power users alike.
- Recent spec changes impacting the device firmware need to be flowed through to the GridPlus MobilePay wallet and the SDK.
- ̶W̶e̶ ̶n̶e̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶r̶e̶f̶a̶c̶t̶o̶r̶ ̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶d̶e̶v̶i̶c̶e̶ ̶p̶a̶i̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶m̶a̶n̶a̶g̶e̶r̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶f̶o̶r̶m̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶n̶g̶e̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶e̶v̶i̶c̶e̶ ̶f̶i̶r̶m̶w̶a̶r̶e̶.̶
- Additional system screens and elements of the user interface need to be built out.
- Firmware stress testing and revisions to completed functionality will continue throughout the completion of the above tasks.
Since then work has completed on the revised device pairing manager so item three has been crossed off the list.
The bulk of the work completed this past month has been on the first item: fundamentals of card reader interface and behavior are 99% complete and remaining core wallet functionality is greater than 50% complete.
The user interface and experience straddles both items one and four. Since this is dependent on all underlying logic being finalized this is approximately 20% complete; efforts will shift to this area once the rest of core functionality is finished.
Alex continues to flow through changes to the MobilePay wallet as they occur and looks forward to announcing a revised SDK once all core functionality is finalized.
GridPlus Energy
This month crypto customers began redeeming GRID to pay their energy bills. Each GRID token grants customers access to 500kWh of electricity without markup as always, but now there is a monthly bill pay redemption rate based on a multiple of the market spot rate. Our customers have been pleasantly surprised to learn that we plan to continue to offer this option indefinitely!
More crypto customers has meant more constructive customer feedback. We have been smoothing out the crypto redemption process as well as a few browser specific issues. Refinement of the customer experience is an ongoing process and we really appreciate all those that have taken the time to work with us on improvements.
We have added a handful of customers to our new prepaid plans while we test our backend systems integrations. We look forward to announcing its broad availability soon.
Wrap Up
The pace is building behind the scenes as we prepare to make a splash this year and as the big date draws closer we’re going to have a lot more to share.
But firmware and software work doesn’t end when the first batch of Lattice1s makes it into customer hands — there’s a lot more on the road map so we’re growing. We’re looking to hire an additional experienced firmware engineer in Austin; reach out to us directly if you want to help build the future of the Lattice1 and GridPlus.
For the latest developments follow us on Twitter, talk with us directly on Telegram, and discuss the project on r/GridPlus!
Disclaimer
The forward-looking statements in this update are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties which are subject to change over time. There are many risk factors, including those relating to blockchain and cryptographic technology generally, as well Grid+’s business, operations and results of operations, that could cause our actual results or developments anticipated by us not to be realized or, even if substantially realized, to fail to achieve any or all of the benefits that could be expected therefrom, We reserve the right to change the plans, expectations and intentions stated herein at any time and for any reason, in our sole and absolute discretion, and we undertake no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. ACCORDINGLY, WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU DO NOT RELY ON, AND DO NOT MAKE ANY FINANCIAL DECISION OR INVESTMENT BASED ON, THE STATEMENTS CONTAINED IN THIS UPDATE — INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY SELLING OR TRADING OF GRID TOKENS, ETHER OR ANY OTHER CRYPTOGRAPHIC OR BLOCKCHAIN TOKEN, OR THE SECURITIES OF ANY COMPANY.
