WA_SKYFISH25 — Ashaka Energy Commons
“Powering dignity through visibility: A community-operated energy stewardship system.”
Project Category: Energy, Governance, Web3, Infrastructure
Team Members
| Name | Role | Responsibilities |
|---|---|---|
| Henry Daniel Gandu | Lead Developer | Laravel/PHP, Cardano Integration |
| David Oglekwu | Designer | UI/UX |
| Enioluwa Bankole Timothy | Frontend Developer | Web Interfaces |
| Abdullhahi Abdullsalam | Specialist | LLM/AI |
| Abdullahi Abdullhameed | Specialist | LLM/AI |
Product Journey
Phase A: Ground Potentializing (Research & Ideation)
The team immersed themselves in Ashaka, Gombe State, identifying a chronic crisis where electricity is available for only 1-2 hours at night. This crippled the livelihoods of artisans whose machinery sat idle during the day. The team found that vandalism (costing the community ₦2 million in repairs) and a lack of trust in the grid were major blockers.
The Problem: Unreliable power, exacerbated by infrastructure vandalism, is severely eroding community trust and economic productivity.
[!NOTE] Key Research Insight: “Value means reliable visibility… shifting from 23% uptime planning to coordinated micro-grid use.”
Phase B: Prototyping (Design & Development)
The team initially planned for centralized alerts but pivoted after resident input showed a need for community ownership. They built the Ashaka Energy Commons, a mobile-first webapp that turns residents into “Energy Stewards.”
- Input: Residents log ON/OFF events and report risks (“Problem spotted”) via the webapp.
- Process: Local validators confirm the reports.
- Reward: The system mints Energy Steward Tokens to reward active monitoring.
Top 3 Features:
- Community Reporting Tool: Simple mobile interface for logging outages and infrastructure risks.
- Stewardship Rewards: Token incentives for validating grid status, gamifying maintenance.
- Visibility Dashboard: Real-time data for local leaders to coordinate usage and protect assets.
Phase C: Deployment (Final Implementation)
The final solution anchors these community reports on the Cardano blockchain. This ensures that the data regarding outages and repairs is tamper-proof.
Technical Stack: Laravel/PHP (Backend), Cardano (Metadata/Smart Contracts for Trust), Mobile-Web Frontend.
Live Status: Pilot ready for 50 users in Ashaka; Governance transition planned.
Media & Resources
- Video Journey: Watch on Dropbox
- Live Demo: 44.252.21.130
- Extended Demo: Watch on Dropbox
- Twitter: https://x.com/skyfish_20
- GitHub: https://github.com/danythost/energy-commons
Achievements & Reflections
Team WA_SKYFISH25’s major achievement was redefining the “energy problem” as a “governance problem.” By empowering youth to be guardians of the grid, they are solving the vandalism issue from the bottom up.
Key Milestone: Successful validation of user reports to Cardano verification.
[!TIP] The “Big Lesson”: “Data empowers leaders as an infrastructure ‘immune system’ against vandalism.”