Ray Cline

Dr. Cline is currently responsible the cryptocurrency strategy and initiatives for Lancium. Dr. Cline serves as a member of the IEEE Blockchain Initiative Steering Committee and is President/CEO of RWI Mining, LLC, a Blockchain mining firm.

He has participated in the development of a broad range of technologies, including high performance computing and communications technology, distance computing, collaborative computing, parallel processing, distributed computing, distributed object computing, distributed multimedia, networking protocols, and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networking. He has applied these technologies to the development of systems to address needs in the petroleum, national security, manufacturing, and medical industries, with a specialization in recent years toward digital energy solutions (the application of dynamic, network centric operational models in the energy space).

Dr. Cline serves on the board of HARC, a research hub providing independent analysis on energy, air, and water issues to people seeking scientific answers; is a Fellow of the Borders, Trade, and Immigration Institute, a DHS Center of Excellence; and is a technical advisor to Advanced Green Computing Machines. Dr. Cline had previously led the Department of Energy funded Smart Grid Education and Training Coalition; was a member of the Executive Committee of TMAC, the Texas affiliate of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); served on the board of the Global Energy Safety Institute; and served as the Chairperson of the Cluster Development Committee of the Greater Houston Partnership Energy Collaborative.

Dr. Cline earned a PhD in Chemical Physics from the University of Illinois and a BS in Chemistry from Kent State University.

Smart energy infrastructure continues to expand the demand for reliable renewable energy. Solar and wind generation capabilities have grown significantly, both within the United States and globally. This increase in renewable energy production has also increased the percentage of electricity generation capacity coming from distributed generation resources. Often these distributed generation resources are not optimally locating relative to load centers, placing stress on the existing power grids. These “dislocations” can often cause grid instability, resulting in generation curtailments and even negative pricing regimes.

Simultaneously, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology has provided an increasing demand for electricity supply to perform the proof-of-work computations that provide validation and security for cryptocurrencies and smart contracts through “mining.” Counter to the original thesis of a globally distributed computational infrastructure, the economics of cryptocurrency mining has resulted in large centralized mining farms.

Lancium is addressing these two technical challenges simultaneously by developing decentralized, distributed infrastructure that can be used to balance grid dislocations. This presentation will cover the highlights of this technical solution and current status of development.