# Sunrise Stake Green Pool

## Summary

The *Sunrise Stake Green Pool* initiative aims to establish an automated pool comprising climate-neutral validators, specifically, those using renewable energy sources.

The validators will be evaluated based on their climate impact on a scale of 0 to 1, where a score of 1 indicates no climate impact (or better).

The best scoring validators will be dynamically allocated to the stake pool, with real-time adjustments to ensure that new validators, or validators that change energy source, will be moved in or out of the pool automatically.

The data informing these decisions will be refreshed regularly to maintain accuracy and relevance.

The existence of this pool provides Solana a viable pathway towards reducing its carbon footprint through carbon "insets", a method focusing on direct emission reduction. This, coupled with carbon offsets, encapsulates a dual strategy, propelling Solana closer to its climate neutrality objectives.


## Data Source

The climate impact data will be sourced by [Nova Energy's](https://novaenergy.ai/) API.

Nova's API will provide information on the outputs of the Energy Validation Process (EVP).

Nova Energy's EVP is designed to collect a wide range of data points related to the environmental impact of validators, ensuring a thorough assessment of their sustainability practices.The types of data collected through Nova Energy's EVP include:

- Electricity Consumption Data: Detailed information on the electricity consumption of each validator, including energy usage over time, electricity bills, and energy production data.

- Renewable Energy Usage: Data on the proportion of renewable energy sources used by validators in their operations.

- Water Usage: Information on water consumption (if any) associated with validator operations, contributing to a holistic understanding of their environmental footprint.

- Hardware Configuration Data: Details on the hardware configurations employed by validators, which can impact energy efficiency and overall environmental impact.

The data collection process implemented by Nova Energy ensures the reliability and integrity of the collected data.

Validators who wish to be eligible for the Green Staking pool will be required to submit relevant information through Nova's Reporting Portal , which streamlines the data collection and submission process.

Crucially, Nova collaborates with expert third-party assessors to scrutinize the submitted data, verifying its accuracy and completeness.

By leveraging Nova Energy's Energy Validation Process, the Sunrise Stake Green Pool gains access to robust and granular data insights, enabling informed decision-making regarding validator selection and environmental impact assessment.

## Yield Returns

The stake pool will introduce a liquid staking token, expected to yield comparable returns to stakers to other LSTs in the ecosystem.

While retail participation is welcomed, we anticipate interest primarily from foundations, institutions, and public goods like Sunrise, that are interested in bolstering the blockchain's climate resilience.

## Technical Details

### Step 1. Collect and Maintain Validator Lists

An off-chain scheduled job will obtain the full list of all validators from the solanabeach.io API and store the list in an off-chain database.

Since the validator list does not change particularly frequently, it is sufficient to run this job every few weeks.

The job will also collect ASN information for each validator, as well as other relevant information, such as the operator name and contact information where available.

### Step 2. Collect and Store Climate Impact Data

A separate job, running on a similar frequency of every few weeks, will, for each validator*, call the Climate API and collect the relevant climate impact / energy data, and store it in the same database.

The DB should maintain historical information so that this can be used in step 3.

The DB contents remain private, visible only to Sunrise Stake.

Any additional validator information, such as location-based data, as well as contextual or aggregate information, such as the average energy-mix of a country/region, and information about validator location distribution and stake distribution on the Solana chain, will also be collected and stored at this step.

*Note: At this point, the list of validators from step 1 may be filtered, to remove validators that the Climate API can not support, for example, due to regional limitations.

### Step 3. Post-process and Convert to a Score

Once all data are collected, this step applies a formula to derive a Climate Impact Score for each validator. Nova Energy's Energy Validation Process (EVP) and Green Scores methodology play a crucial role in this calculation, ensuring accuracy, transparency, and reliability.

The Climate Impact Score formula is designed to provide a comprehensive assessment of each validator's environmental footprint. Initially, the formula may be as simple as:

Green Score (g) = Renewable Energy Proportion (r)

Where:
g: Green Score
r: Renewable Energy Proportion (from 0 to 1)

Under this base-case model, a validator using 100% renewable energy would receive a score of 1.

However, subsequent formula adjustments will incorporate additional factors provided by Nova Energy's EVP and Green Scores methodology, including:

- Detailed energy consumption data collected through the Energy Validation Process, which considers electricity bills, energy consumption, production data, water usage, and more for each validatorID.

- Evaluation of sustainable practices demonstrated by validators, such as renewable energy matching, as reported in the Energy Validation Process by validators.

- Assessment of electricity grid emissions intensity considering regional factors, matched with emissions factors over time to determine overall environmental impact.

- Incorporation of metrics from Nova Energy's Green Scores methodology, including Emissions Score, Location Score, and Confidence Score, which provide nuanced insights into emissions efficiency, local environmental impact, and data integrity.

- Continuous refinement of the formula over time based on feedback from validators and ongoing advancements in sustainability reporting best practices.

The formula will be adjusted over time as needed by Sunrise, in order to maximise the positive climate impact of the stake pool.

An initial formula may be as simple as:

$$
g(v) = r(v)
$$

where:

g = green score
v = validator
r = renewable-energy proportion (from 0 to 1).

Under this base-case model, a validator using 100% renewable enery would get a score of 1.

However, subsequent formula will take other factors into account, such as:
- Energy consumption
- Water consumption
- Baseline energy mix of the location / country
- Geographical distribution of validators
- Relative size of validator (existing stake delegated)

### Step 4. Register the Green Store on chain

For each validator, the green score will be reported on chain, in a PDA keyed by each validator. The calculations used to generate this score in the previous step are not exposed, however there should be an audit trail, so that Sunrise can justify a score if asked.

Concretely, a Solana program will be created, which
a) derives a PDA from the validator address
b) creates and owns an account for that PDA that stores the score
c) permits an authority key to update that score

Note - this step allows us to automate the configuration of the stake pool validator list on chain, increasing trust and reducing the amount of hands-on management needed by Sunrise, but is optional for milestone 1 (see below).

### Step 5. Configure the Stake Pool Validator List

Each Solana stake pool has an on-chain "Validator List" account which stores the list of all validators that are in the pool.

In milestone 1, a manual job will update this validator list with the top `x` validators by green score. This will automatically cause stake to be redirected to validators on this list. The `x` is the cut-off point for inclusion in the pool

In milestone 2, the program from step 4 will be augmented to automatically update this validator list based on the on-chain values.

Note - once a validator is on the list, their green score from step 3 is no longer relevant. In other words, a validator with a higher score will not be given more stake. It is therefore important that the cut-off point `x` is not set too high, or the motivation for reducing carbon emissions significantly in order to be brought into the pool would be reduced.

### Stake Pool Management

<i>TODO details about ongoing stake pool management, reserve accounts, fees etc</i>

### Impact Evaluation and Reporting

<i>TODO details about how we evaluate and report the change in validators' scores over time, and how much can be attributed to the stake pool itself.</i>

## Milestones

### 1. Offchain Management

Milestone 1 would see a pool created, with the authority to select validators held by Sunrise based on data from the Climate API. The pool would have no UI at this point.

### 2. Onchain Management

In milestone 2, an oracle would be established that pushes the green scores on-chain. The management of the pool would be changed to a PDA owned by a new program, which consumes the data and configures the pool accordingly. At this point, the pool is 'self-regulating', in that it operates autonomously with minimal oversight.

### 3. UI

Milestone 3 involves setting up a UI for the pool, opening it up for retail investment.