Startup Boston Metal Works on “Green” Steel

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Today’s Highlights:

• Startup Boston Metal Works on “Green” Steel 🏭

• Decentralized Gaming Made Possible with zkEVMs 🎮

The World Bank Invests on Startup Boston Metal Working on “Green” Steel

Being one of the backbones of construction, steel-making has been around since 1800 BC. The need for steel-making to keep going continues to grow, but it, unfortunately, keeps the earth dirty.

Conventional steel-making is powered by coal, which generates a significant amount of carbon dioxide emissions. This becomes a big issue in our more green-conscious world, and MIT-developed startup Boston Metal is trying to make a difference with its “green” steel.

Boston Metal

Boston Metal is a ten-year-old MIT spin-out startup formed in 2013. Aiming to fight climate change and reduce carbon emissions from its steel production, this 120-person company has raised a total of $250 million to make “green” steel possible.

According to the World Steel Association, steel-making contributes to about 7% to 9% of global carbon dioxide emissions. Boston Metal is currently building a technology that can be used to make clean steel possible and has the World Bank’s support.

Boston Metal has recently signed a $20 million funding deal with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a private-sector investment arm of the World Bank. This startup has also gained support to make the world greener from investors like ArcelorMittal, Microsoft’s Climate Fund, and Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

What Are They Planning?

Leaving the blast furnace steel-making process behind, Boston Metal plans to use an electrochemical decarbonizing process called Molten Oxide Electrolysis (MOE). This process passes electricity through iron oxide mixed with a slew of other oxides.

The slew contains at least one oxygen atom, and if the electricity is clean, the steel that comes out of the electrolysis cell will be clean, too. Instead of emitting carbon dioxide, this technique will produce oxygen. Boston Metal is in the process of developing commercial-scale technology for this but is confident with its scientific process.

With conventional blast furnace technology, only the best quality iron ore can be used. Boston Metal’s tech will enable the usage of low-grade iron ore in steel production, giving plenty of iron ore-owning markets a chance to make their own steel.

What’s Next?

Although Boston Metal’s main goal is to generate green steel, it has come up with another program to help make the earth a little greener. Utilizing its electrolysis technology, Boston Metal plans to produce essential materials in the metal and electronics industry, which includes tin, niobium, and tantalum metals, using the waste collected from the mining process.

With hopes of raising $300 million in funds, Boston Metal will use one-third of its funding to commercialize this program in its Brazilian subsidiary. This metal-generation business is hoped to generate this company’s first revenue.

Boston Metal will use the rest of its funds to finalize the development of the steel-making process and its components, with plans to license and commercialize green steel in 2026. Boston Metal and IFC will distribute every profit they make for development goals reinvestment.

Boston Metal’s tech and confidence in its scientific process may prove to create a green future and an opportunity for professionals in developing markets. More companies will be able to build their own steel plant and production.

Zero-Knowledge EVMs are Key to Decentralized Gaming

The gaming industry is undeniably a monumental one. Popular web2 games, whether console or mobile, can be such a success by working alongside their in-game economies most of the time.

AAA games like Fortnite, Call of Duty, and Overwatch, enable players to purchase in-game customizations in the form of skins, accessories, frames, and more. In 2022, the skins market alone became a $50 billion industry.

What’s unpleasant about these purchases is that all the things gamers spend money on aren’t actually, truly, theirs. Most, if not all of the time, these virtual in-game assets cannot be transferred, sold, or traded. Funds only flow from gamers to developers and publishers, and that’s that. This irritating truth is what Web3 gaming aims to alter.

Web3 Gaming

There’s no doubt that game developers are always moving and creating. With the abundant amount of games coming out every year, developers have to be innovative and create something new to attract gamers. This notion has intrigued developers to open up to decentralized games and experiment with Web3.

Decentralized gaming invites gamers to truly enjoy and be part of the ecosystem where their digital assets lie, and not by using VR. Web3 gaming lets players transfer their digital assets between different games.

This may sound unfathomable, with there being a massive amount of in-game assets across the world. To make this possible, Web3 games have to possess the ability to process tens of thousands of transactions simultaneously, and it seems they can, with zero-knowledge EVMs.

Zero-Knowledge EVMs’ Utilization

Zero-knowledge technology involves digital protocols that allow two parties to share data with each other without associating any information with the transaction. With zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machines (zkEVM), bundles of safe and secure transactions can be done on a global scale.

Using zkEVMs in the gaming industry gives players the ability to transfer between different games as well. All assets, avatars, and profiles can be moved across platforms and games. This gives gamers more access with just one or two clicks away, which seems impossible to achieve with traditional web2 games. In addition to that, gamers won’t feel so bad for spending money in just one place since assets are transferable.

Involving smart contracts in the gaming process can possibly unlock gameplay mechanics within the Ethereum ecosystem itself, and the items gamers own can be of actual value, turning them into tradeable and transferable NFTs.

Benefits for Developers

Enabling the trade and transfer of digital assets across games can perhaps be an opportunity for professionals in the business to create a certain game universe, setting themselves apart.

With there being a couple of games in one universe for players to transfer assets from one to another, they might be intrigued to try all of them out.

What you’ve read may sound too good to be true, but it is delightfully not. zkEVMS and all the web3 tools gaming studios need to create web3 games are already being developed by Immutable, and entrepreneurs interested in this industry can make the game of their dreams.

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