Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: Research
Podcast and Paper: Roxana Mihet on Financial Innovation and Rising Inequality
IMF Podcast | Jan 21, 2021
W
ith the great strides in financial technology in recent years, the lower data processing costs and fees associated with investing in the stock market should have led to broader increases of household wealth. But in this podcast, economist Roxana Mihet says while fintech has reduced barriers to access and held out the promise of gains for all, it may have worsened capital income inequality.
Mihet is Assistant Professor of Finance at HEC Lausanne, and her recent study suggests the most likely beneficiaries of financial innovation are those who have access to the valuable data that inform good investments. Mihet was recipient of the ECB's Young Economists Award in 2020 for her work on Financial Innovation and the Inequality Gap. She was invited by the IMF's Strategy, Policy and Review Department to present her research. Transcript
Roxana Mihet is an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Lausanne, and a faculty member at the Swiss Finance Institute.
Overview of Research Paper
Information-based models of capital income inequality that link return heterogeneity to investor sophistication levels need to assume an increase in data costs to generate an increase in inequality.
Empirically, this assumption contradicts the fact that investment markets have become more informative over time, and theoretically, it also overlooks the possibility poorer investors can avoid paying a large fixed cost for data, simply by buying shares in a fund.
See:
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Digital Financial Inclusion in the Times of COVID-19
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Davos 2020: Financial inclusion and fintech is key to meeting the UN SDGs
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Fintech is Driving Financial Inclusion
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Fintech As a Pathway to Financial Inclusion? The Case of China
In this paper, I study the impact of financial innovation on capital income inequality in a theoretical framework where investors, heterogeneous in their sophistication, have a costly choice between not investing, investing through a fund of average quality, and searching for an informed fund.
The model predicts that while financial innovation can make the investment sector more efficient and boost financial inclusion, some financial innovation also brings risks. For example, when the cost of financial data processing falls, more wealthier investors trade on information.
This makes participation less valuable for the marginal stock market participant, who is a relatively poorer investor in some average (uninformed) fund and who exits the market altogether, foregoing the equity premium.
This amplifies the inequality gap and also jointly explains why in the last decades, in spite of a dramatic reduction in data processing costs and fund fees, the US stock market has become more informative, yet the stock market participation rate has been on the decline.
Download the Paper (80 page pDF) Fintech and the Inequality Gap -> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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WEF Launches Digital Currency Governance Consortium and 2021 Vision
WEF | Feb 2021
Background
In the near term, the public sector will be making important decisions that will shape the trajectory of digital currency development. These include decisions related to regulation, improving efficiency, resilience, and competitiveness of payment systems, and whether to issue a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Policymakers are also assessing how to support responsible digital currency innovation while safeguarding or promoting financial stability, financial inclusion and consumer protection.
See:
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Do Central Bank Digital Currencies need a blockchain operating system?
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China’s Central Bank and SWIFT arrange JV called Finance Gateway Information Services
In response to these dynamics, the Forum’s Shaping the Future of Blockchain and Digital Assets Platform is assembling stakeholders across the public and private sectors to explore and co-design global frameworks that address the risks, gaps, and opportunities in digital currency governance.
The Opportunity
The Digital Currency Governance Consortium centres on the discussion and development of relevant and timely global frameworks for digital currency governance that benefit from multi-sector input and co-design. In its work, it will work on the following content:
Stablecoin and CBDC Capabilities
This working group will assess the capabilities of stablecoins and CBDCS and the value propositions for various use cases. It may also assess their limitations and the risks they introduce into the monetary system. Topics include: • Assessment of the value of stablecoins and CBDCs, with a particular emphasis on financial inclusion and providing benefits to the financially under-served as compared to existing options. • Exploration of the viability of stablecoins for aid delivery and disbursement.
Regulatory Choices
Fragmented regulation may create uneven competitive environments and opportunities for illicit activity in certain jurisdictions, while stifling innovation by well-intentioned actors who are reticent to experiment without regulatory certainty. This working group will examine how we can establish the right regulatory, supervisory, privacy, and consumer protection guidelines and policies over new forms of digital currencies. The working group will also assess the role of the public sector in the era of digital currency growth, especially the public-private division of responsibility.
Read:
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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Central Bank Digital Coins (CBDCs)
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Better to get it right than to be first with CBDC, says US Fed chair
Technology Choices
This working group will investigate the right technological frameworks for operationalizing digital currencies. Topics will include architecture, interoperability, and privacy, and centre on the following: • Framework helping to guide central banks in their analysis around CBDC technology platforms and providers. • Mapping of the spectrum of privacy and confidentiality options and approaches that are technically feasible and available for CBDC. • Exploration of various forms of interoperability and definitions for what it means for a digital currency issuer to say that their system is "interoperable."
Continue to the full article --> here
Download the 36 page PDF WEF Digital Currencies Governance Consortium --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Did Satoshi Nakamoto’s Plan a Blockchain BTC Treasure Hunt?
Bitcoin.com | Jamie Redman | Feb 6, 2021
Over the last twelve years, the cryptocurrency community has always been intrigued by Bitcoin’s inventor Satoshi Nakamoto. For over a decade, armchair sleuths and journalists have tried to uncover the creator’s identity and information on the whereabouts of all the bitcoins the enigma mined when the network was still in its infancy. Now a few individuals believe Satoshi’s coins may be the greatest prize competition ever and the private keys are somehow hidden within the blockchain.
Maybe Satoshi Nakamoto Left a Message?
Just recently, some members of the forum bitcointalk.org have been discussing a new theory surrounding the infamous Satoshi Nakamoto. For years now, the hunt for Nakamoto has been quite the quest and so far, no one has been able to uncover the creator’s identity or find the inventor’s stash of BTC.
It is well known that Nakamoto mined bitcoin and it is estimated that the cryptocurrency creator may have acquired roughly 750,000 BTC to 1.1 million BTC. News.Bitcoin.com has written about Satoshi’s stash on a myriad of occasions including on April 17, 2019. In that particular article, it was reported that RSK Labs chief scientist, Sergio Demián Lerner, had published a new report concerning Satoshi’s alleged holdings.
See: Privacy laws might prove to be a blessing in disguise for crypto
The RSK chief scientist has uncovered a lot in regard to the thousands of blocks Satoshi may have mined. Lerner also published a blog post in 2013 called “A new mystery about Satoshi hidden in the Bitcoin block-chain,” which discusses an interesting nonce field found in the blocks he called the ‘Patoshi’ pattern.
Basically a “nonce” or “number only used once” in Bitcoin terminology is a 32-bit (4-byte) field or a non-repeating value that is included in a mined block. When miners mine bitcoin blocks the goal is to find a hash below or equal to the network’s current target. Lerner’s mystery talks about the distribution of the nonce’s least significant byte (LSB).
What Lerner had found was that the LSB in Satoshi’s alleged blocks were not distributed uniformly and the researcher’s blockchain analysis came to a few conclusions.
At first, he thought that it could be his blockchain parser not working correctly. Or it could mean that Satoshi was mining bitcoins with something “very different from a PC,” Lerner said. “But if this is true, then it has far-reaching consequences: Satoshi foresaw the advantage of FPGA/ASIC much sooner than everybody else,” the researcher added.
See: Future of Crypto Market Infrastructure: The Role of Custodians and Exchanges
Then Lerner thought of a third reason, and that it could mean Satoshi discovered a flaw in SHA-2. But the RSK chief scientist said that “this is highly improbable.” But lastly, Lerner thought that maybe Satoshi left a message fingerprinted in the nonces.
“A Message for us to see in a distant future,” Lerner wrote at the time. “The number of nonces that fall into each byte value or histogram,” he added.
Armchair Detectives Hope to Solve the ‘Greatest Prize Competition’
This mystery has led the group of theorists over at bitcointalk.org to believe that maybe Satoshi’s early mined coins are actually an extremely valuable treasure hunt. A forum account dubbed ‘Old gold digger’ believes that the existence of so many distinguishers says that whoever mined these bitcoin blocks “wanted his/her blocks to be identified.”
There have been others who have alluded to this theory in the past on the forum. “Satoshi left a message fingerprinted in the nonces,” Old gold digger wrote. “A Message for us to see in a distant future.”
The individual added:
Maybe Satoshi created the greatest prize competition and the private keys are somehow within the blockchain.
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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[Cato Webcast Feb 18]: The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics
Cato Institute | Feb 7, 2021
Our polarized times are a breeding ground for dodgy and misleading statistical claims. The COVID-19 pandemic, for example, has seen an explosion of information, with claims and counterclaims about cases, deaths, tests, and vaccination schedules.
How are we to determine which statistics are legitimate when information generation has never been easier? And how can we ensure that reading on important topics leaves us better informed, rather than bamboozled?
See:
Who owns the web’s data?
Future Market Dynamics Part 3 – data sharing, trust and a world of choice
How six companies are using technology and data to transform themselves
Big Data Promises Better Deals. But for Whom?
One man who has thought extensively about our relationship with statistics is British economics writer Tim Harford. Host of the BBC’s excellent More or Less radio show, Harford has thought carefully about how to evaluate and present information. His work has come together in his new U.S. book, The Data Detective, providing us with 10 simple rules (and a bonus golden rule) for evaluating statistics.
Rather than providing us with some dry methodology as a guide, Harford’s book is rich with storytelling to illustrate the pitfalls and dangers of using data. You will learn about how Florence Nightingale started a public health revolution with a pie chart, how the entire Dutch art world was fooled by their own wishful thinking, and how a stripper and a congressman changed the face of U.S. statistics.
February 18, 2021 • 12:00 - 1:00 PM EST • LIVE ONLINE
Register for this live event --> Now
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Are you measuring these 5 metrics of digital progress and success?
McKinsey Digital | Matt Fitzpatrick and Kurt Strovink | Jan 29, 2021
As organizations launch more and more digital initiatives, CEOs must monitor whether they are delivering business results. These metrics are ones to watch.
In a time of seemingly nonstop digital disruptions, which have only accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, the business imperative to embrace digital, data, and analytics is widely understood. The link to business value, however, is not. When we ask CEOs how their transition to digital is progressing, they often respond with a list of initiatives under way across the business—building a new tech platform, launching new products, or investing in infrastructure, to name a few. But when we ask them to quantify the impact on the bottom line, there’s usually a long silence.
See: Digital transformation: 9 emerging roles you need on your team
While business and technology leaders might report good progress on those initiatives to the CEO, simply getting projects off the drawing board doesn’t guarantee that the organization is increasing revenue, profitability, market share, efficiency, or competitive moats as a result. Organizations pursuing digitization need a fully engaged CEO to take charge and drive actual performance gains from digital investment. That means prioritizing scalable initiatives capable of substantially improving the organization’s performance; insisting on fast, minimally viable outcomes that can be improved over time; and, importantly, measuring and tracking the impact and value creation of all digital initiatives.
Map before you measure
Prioritizing digital initiatives is an essential first step we’ve written about frequently, but it’s worth repeating—and it falls directly on the CEO’s shoulders. CEOs should ask themselves today, “Does my organization have a clear road map of digital priorities, rather than a basket of digital projects?” The purpose of this road map is not just to get from point A to point B. It’s to force the organization to prioritize three to five bold initiatives, meaning digital moves that have potential to make a material difference in the organization’s overall performance, and to focus resources accordingly. Perhaps the most common pitfall we see in failed digital strategies is the tendency for leaders to greenlight every project. However, doing so runs the risk that none will achieve enough scale to change behavior, mobilize the broader organization, or drive material impact.
Five metrics for the digital CEO
1. Return on digital investments
Measuring the return on digital investment is both standard and essential. CEOs should look not only at the value being provided by individual priority digital initiatives but also at initiatives’ collective support of strategic organizational goals. To maximize returns, we recommend transforming one business domain at a time and broadening from there for traction and coherence. “Domain” here refers to a critical process, customer or employee journey, or function. For example, a marketing domain for a consumer-goods company might include customer acquisition, pricing, cross-selling, and retention.
2. Percentage of annual technology budget spent on bold digital initiatives
Organizations that spend only a small proportion of their technology budgets on enabling the most strategic, bold digital initiatives are unlikely to maximize return on digital investment. Business technology is shifting away from a monolithic IT architecture and toward microservices, best-of-breed tools for specific use cases, and custom application development.
Read: 4 Digital Transformation Lessons that Banks Need to Learn from Covid-19
Consider the banking industry. Our research suggests that many banks spend about 92 percent of their digital budgets on infrastructure and maintenance, leaving only 8 percent for business-improvement initiatives that can fuel growth. That is not a sustainable paradigm for any business, given the current pace of innovation and disruption.
3. Time required to build a digital application
Our experience suggests timelines for getting applications to market and for new releases. For an analytics model (such as one that predicts customer churn or identifies microsegments to allow for more personalization), putting it to work in the field should take less than four months. We see many organizations still taking as long as two years or more to complete these builds, largely because they lack agile continuous-delivery processes and wrestle with overly burdensome documentation and nonfunctional requirements such as security and single-sign-on authentication.
4. Percentage of business leaders’ incentives linked to value-creating digital builds
A CEO needs to ensure that all organizational leaders are accountable for digital transformation and are driving tangible value. Aligning incentives is critical to achieving these ends. Importantly, this includes linking digital incentives among these leaders, including the organization’s head of technology.
5. Top technical talent attracted, promoted, and retained
The ability to attract and retain exceptional tech talent is arguably the most crucial driver of long-term success in this increasingly digital age. Tech talent includes individuals with expertise in data engineering and analytics, design and user experience, and core technology.
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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First Major DeFi Hack of the Year Explained
The Defiant | Owen Fernau | Feb 5, 2021
The latest on the Yearn Finance exploit below.
Yearn Finance, the yield aggregation protocol founded by Andre Cronje, has been hacked. One of the platform’s so-called vaults lost $11M, and the attacker got away with $2.8M.
It’s the first DeFi hack of the year, after $100M worth of attacks in the sector last year, according to a report by Ciphertrace. About half of the exploits, including this one from Yearn, have used flash loans (loans which don’t require collateral as long as they’re returned on the same block).
While the Yearn team has yet to release a postmortem, the attack’s nature could be categorized as an arbitrage. The hacker used a flash loan to borrow millions in crypto assets, use those assets as collateral to borrow more crypto, then repeatedly deposited those borrowed assets in a Yearn pool. The exploit consisted in manipulating the Dai rate in the pool, and benefitting from that rate by exchanging the liquidity provider tokens earned for stablecoins.
See: Are Stablecoins Better Than Bitcoin?
Most if not all DeFi attacks involve complex financial engineering, manipulating token prices, or liquidity in token pools, to get crypto at extremely favorable rates. It highlights the need for code in DeFi protocols to be ironclad, which is often far from reality. These projects are sometimes hacked together over the weekend and released without formal audits or tests —a “test in prod” strategy which has been championed by Yearn’s founder himself.
Step by Step
Here’s how it went down.
The attacker used flash loans to borrow 116K Ether from margin trading platform dYdX, and 99K from lending platform, Aave.
They were then able to use 215K ETH, worth ~$342M, as collateral to borrow 134M USDC and 129M DAI from lending platform, Compound Finance.
The attacker then added all of the borrowed USDC and 36M of the borrowed DAI to Curve Finance’s 3-token USDC/DAI/USDT pool. They then withdrew 165M USDT from the Curve pool.
See: Fidelity-backed crypto security startup Fireblocks launches ‘Secure Asset Transfer Network’
Then the attacker repeated the strategy of depositing the remaining 93M DAI, borrowed from Compound into Yearn’s yDAI vault, adding the 165M USDT back into the Curve 3-token stablecoin pool (3pool), withdraw 92M DAI from the yDAI vault, then withdrawing the 165M USDT again from the Curve pool.
Each time the hacker executed the repeating part of the strategy they gained more Curve’s DAO Token, which they later converted to stablecoins, eventually netting them $2.8M, and losing Yearn’s vault, for whose deposits are now disabled, $11M.
Under the Hood
Key to understanding the exploit is that Yearn’s yDAI vault automatically deposits DAI into Curve’s 3pool, which the attack had already heavily saturated with USDC and DAI. In adding the third asset, USDT, to the pool, DAI is devalued, according to Curve’s protocol mechanics.
After withdrawing the DAI from yDAI, at a small loss due to the devaluation, and also withdrawing the USDT, USDC, and other DAI from the 3pool, the attacker reaps the extra rewards of Curve’s DAO Tokens for providing liquidity during a time when the DAI rate strayed from the pool's other two assets.
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Improving Energy Efficiency using Modern Window Technology
Guest Post | Feb 5, 2021
“An average Canadian spends approximately $130-$150 per month on gas and $125 - $160 on electricity, which makes it on average a total of $3,000 - $3,700 utility bills per year. This means utility bills, which cover a large part of your home or office heating and cooling, would be taking a large chunk of your money”, - says Arkadi Lykovsky, Ecoline Windows expert from Vancouver.
However, the amount of energy Canadians spend is highly dependent on how committed they are to taking steps to reduce the amount of energy their homes or office consume daily, monthly and yearly. One major step to take to reduce the amount spent on utility is by choosing energy-efficient windows, doors and skylights that would save money and keep your home comfortable in all seasons.
Energy-efficient windows and doors help you save energy. The glass in our windows comes with a standard Low-E coating. Rooms that get a lot of direct sunlight can overheat during the day. Low-E glass reflects sun rays away from the house and keeps your home comfortable. There are different Low-E coatings based on how much sunlight you want to block. The same technology stops heat from escaping your home during the winter, reducing heating costs.
See: How to Spend Money
High-performance energy efficiency windows and doors must meet specific standard requirements to ensure they perform efficiently. This article will discuss in detail the industry standard and requirements they must meet.
Industry Standards
Industry standards are the criteria that exist in a particular field and are commonly the accepted requirements that must be adhered to in that industry. In this context, we take a look at those requirements that energy-efficient windows should meet to be considered standard.
Certification Requirements
Certification requirements are the demands every high-performance energy efficiency window must meet to be certified. For energy-efficient products to be certified, they must pass through the ENERGY STAR scrutiny.
Standard Specification
Standard specifications are a set of components, materials, or processes needed to achieve uniformity and efficiency of a set of products. Standard, high-performance energy efficiency product has a standard specification. This specification is issued by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). The U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authorized NRCan to issue the ENERGY STAR name and symbol in Canada.
To be entitled to the ENERGY STAR certification, there is a need for third-party organizations to test energy-efficient. These organizations received their accreditation from either the National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) or Standard Council of Canada (SCC) to meet specific U-value, Energy Rating and air-tight efficiency specifications for Version 1, 2020 dated January 1, 2020.
- U-Factor
The U-Factor calculates how much a product can prevent heat from leaking out of a room. One way to know this is to check for how high or low the number is because the lower the number, the better the product is at preventing the heat from leaving the room.
- Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC)
Basically, SHGC is the fraction of solar radiation passing through a window, skylight, or door. It might be either transmitted directly or absorbed and consequently emitted as heat within the house. The lower the SHGC, the less solar heat it spreads and the higher its shading facility.
- Air Leakage
This calculates the amount of air that is likely to gain access to your home via a product. The amount of air leakage you will experience is dependent on the number.
- Energy Rating (ER)
When it comes to window products, the Energy Rating (ER) is an authorized neutral organization's evaluation. A rigorous standard procedure takes place to assess the products. Basically, ER rating for windows measures its overall efficiency based on the following factors:
- solar heat gain
- air leakage heat loss
- heat loss through frames, spacer, and glass
The key rule here is: the higher is better. A higher rating leads to better performance.
What is NFRC?
National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) is a non-profit organization in the United States. It focuses on the responsibility of sponsoring energy efficiency certification and issue labels for windows, skylights and doors.
The NFRC is a program set up for a purpose: provision of performance ratings for energy-efficient products. These products are in five groupings and they include: U-value, Solar Heat Gain Coefficient, Visible Transmittance, Air Leakage and Condensation resistance. This enables you to set up a comparison of the energy efficiency that exists among products and ascertain if each product meets the required standard.
See: How six companies are using technology and data to transform themselves
The NFRC is operating under strict monitoring processes as regards the NFRC certification programs, thereby ensuring that your energy efficiency products meet the highest quality standard for best performance.
What is NAFS-11?
North American Fenestration Specifications for windows, doors and skylights, NAFS-11, is a standard that is measured when two or more windows joined together align with specific performance assessments.
What is the ENERGY STAR?
Energy Star is a program set up by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE). The program has a focus, which is to provide support to consumers to save money while they have access to safe environmental practices through energy-efficient products.
What are ENERGY STAR Requirements?
Any product with the Energy Star label showcases that it is a top-rated, cost-effective and high-performance product. Below is a representation of how residential windows, doors, and skylights in Canada are certified in the ENERGY STAR program. The requirements are reflected in the Tables below. To be certified, at least of the requirements in them must be met.
Table 1: U-factor Criteria for Residential Windows and Doors
| Product | Max U-factor | Max U-factor |
| Windows and doors | 1.22 W/m2.k | 0.21 Btu/h.ft2°F |
Table 2: Alternate ER Criteria for Residential Windows and Doors
| Product | Min ER |
| Windows and Doors | 34 |
Ecoline Windows Case Study
Below is a case study of Ecoline Windows, energy efficiency windows manufacturer in Canada. They have over 40,000 installations, and all their products are ENERGY STAR rated and NAFS 11- tested. Below is the evaluation of the qualities of some of their specific products.
New Stage Ultra Plus R9 IG Units
The Ultra plus triple is a high-performance energy-efficient window certified by the National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC), Stage Ultra Plus, R9 IG units, has a triple glazing system is produced to deliver a 0.11 U-Factor, which compares to an insulating factor.
See: Remote Working Cybersecurity Checklist
The New Stage Ultra Plus, R9 IG units, was produced to help conserve energy and increase comfort during summer and winter seasons through its optimized features like the low-e, Ultra plus glazing system and silicon expanded foam soap spacer. Another unique highlight to the Ultra Plus R9 IG units is its German high performing Hot Melt sealing process.
Double and Triple Pane
In what circumstances is a double or triple pane required?
Ecoline Windows: Because glass panes are the largest and most vulnerable part of a window, it is necessary to provide an adequate amount of insulation for harsh climate conditions, which is why a minimum of 2 panes is always required. However, triple pane windows are best for areas with low winter temperatures. Our Ecoline triple glass has high energy rating standards.
LoE Coated Glass
Can you briefly explain what the LoE Coated Glass does?
Ecoline Windows: Our Low-emissive glass coatings help keep in the internal more than an ordinary glass would, especially during cold winter seasons while it serves as a sun shield by filtering harmful UV rays and lessening heat penetration in summer. We have different combinations of LoE glass coatings available for different levels of performance.
Argon and Krypton Gas
What does Argon and Krypton Gas do?
Ecoline Windows: Our Argon and Krypton gas conduct about 50% less heat in the air. They use these gases to consume the spaces between the double and triple pane windows which protect against heat loss, condensation and cold weather to save more energy and provide comfort. The Ecoline windows are equipped with different unique features which play a vital role in enhancing their functionality. Below are some of these features:
● PVC Profile Walls
How thick are PVC profile walls?
Ecoline Windows: Our PVC walls are 7 to 10 % thicker than the regular for all the types of windows. It includes casement, casement fixed, picture windows and awning.
- True Multi-Chamber Design
What is the purpose of the True Multi-Chamber Design?
Ecoline Windows: All our Ecoline windows use the True Multi-Chamber design for three basic purposes: to improve structural performance, improve sound insulation and reduce warping.
● Multiple Glazing Options
What multiple glazing options do you have available?
Ecoline Windows: we have a variety of glazing options available. For the traditional double glazing, it is equipped with 7/8 overall thickness. While the triple glazing options are 1-3/8. And they are primarily used for awning, casement, casement fixed and picture windows. All the options we have available for sliders and hung windows are 1-1/4 without grill limitations.
● Screen Groove Port Design
What is the function of the Screen Groove Port design?
Ecoline Windows: The purpose of the Screen Groove Port Design is to basically for improved push-down screen fit in the casement and awning windows.
See: In the Future, Home Will be Wherever Consumers Choose to be
The Bottom Line
Modern window technology is the key to conserving energy, protecting the environment and living comfortably in all seasons as they help you pay fewer bills on heating and cooling, provide warmth or cold to suit your needs and reduce greenhouse emissions. However, energy efficiency products go through a series of scrutiny to be fit to use, all of which have been discussed in this article. To ensure you make the best decisions when determining if an energy efficiency product would yield high performance, it's important to consider the certification requirements demanded of every energy efficiency window for best results.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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