We live in a world driven by energy consumption.
AI is exploding, EV adoption is ramping, and data centers are scaling faster than grids can handle. Electricity grids worldwide are feeling the strain of humanity's ever-increasing energy demands.
When looking for a solution, solar seemed the obvious choice, but there was a caveat:
- How do we incentivize people?
- How do we verify impact?
Bitcoin paved the way for decentralized networks by aligning strangers through incentives. But those incentives extend beyond the blockchain and have a physical footprint.
As Bitcoin scales, the amount of computation competing to win blocks increases, which in turn means more electricity is consumed. This is the typical consequence of capitalist incentive structures: we relentlessly scale whatever converts resources into value, but that's where Glow comes in.
Glow is built on the same insight that enabled Bitcoin to scale to consume the electricity of many large nation-states, but with the opposite outcome. Bitcoin miners earn tokens by building compute that consumes energy. Glow miners earn tokens by scaling solar that produces clean energy, and then uses that output to reward participation.
Solar is already one of the cheapest and fastest-to-deploy clean power tech on Earth, but it still faces a problem: Solar isn't always profitable enough to get built.
Paul Ewing, President at GOODPWR, a national solar installation company and Glow partner, recently confirmed that "many solar deals end up not getting installed because economically, they don't work."
Sometimes, revenue alone can't justify upfront construction costs, but Glow's token incentive model turns economically unviable opportunities into viable ones.
What is Glow?
Inspired by Bitcoin's technical innovation, David Vorick, Glow's Founder, put fingers to keys and wrote some code with the premise of building something onchain that would generate compounding positive externalities as it scaled.
Three years later, Glow launches its 100th solar farm, validating the Glow protocol and marking a major milestone for energy innovation.
In brief, Glow uses crypto incentives to fund and scale solar farms at a fraction of the cost of traditional solar subsidies. Glow turns incentives into real-world infrastructure you can see, touch, and monitor in real time; I'm talking solar panels, installers, audits, and energy output.
We call this solar mining, because solar farms on Glow "mine" GLW tokens by generating verifiable clean energy.
Better yet, Glow's solar farms are funded by a growing community of crypto enthusiasts, clean energy advocates, and even the crypto-curious who feel somewhat safeguarded by the familiarity of solar and the physical infrastructure of a DePIN project.
That's the beauty of Glow: it's designed to scale with compounding community conviction.
Why Glow Matters: It Makes Solar Subsidies 10-100x More Efficient
As above, Glow can make one dollar go 10-100x further than traditional solar subsidies (government or corporate), which are usually:
- slow
- expensive
- administratively heavy
- poorly targeted
They often subsidize solar that would have been built anyway, meaning billions of dollars get spent without delivering substantial real-world impact.
Glow's incentive model and onchain verifiability differ because we reward only the solar that generates the highest impact per revenue dollar. This creates a competition where incentives flow to the projects that matter most.
So... what's in it for you?
Irrespective of whether you are new to crypto or a seasoned veteran, it's fair to ask:
- Why buy GLW tokens?
- Why delegate GLW to solar farms?
- What makes Glow worth supporting?
Let's break it down as clearly and simply as possible.
GLW: The Token That Powers Solar Growth
GLW is the token that fuels Glow's solar incentive system.
When you buy GLW, you become part of an ecosystem that is transforming the future of energy, but holding GLW alone isn't the most meaningful way to participate.
Delegating GLW = Crowdfunding Solar Farms
For a solar farm to join Glow, it needs to pay a Protocol Deposit. Think of the protocol deposit as having skin in the game or a performance bond that proves the farm is serious and enables fair competition.
Despite solar panels becoming increasingly cost-efficient, many farms don't have the means to self-fund their required deposit, so Glow empowers the community to step in.
Delegators contribute GLW to help fund the Protocol Deposit.
In return, once the farm is live (upon the Protocol Deposit being posted), delegators earn a share of the GLW tokens the farm mines over 100 weeks.
Therefore, delegators:
- help build newly constructed solar
- participate in Glow's incentive model
- earn protocol rewards tied to farm activity
- can track everything onchain
It's clean energy crowdfunding, but structured, audited, and incentive-aligned.
Why this is perfect for people new to crypto
Let's face it, crypto doesn't have the best rap when it comes to mainstream adoption, but that's where Glow stands out.
Unlike other crypto projects, Glow is built on something everyone already understands: Solar panels create electricity.
Couple this with Glow's physical infrastructure, and it makes it easy for mainstream audiences, installers, institutions, and energy advocates to understand. Glow boasts a tangible, measurable ecosystem with verifiable infrastructure and onchain transparency.
Glow V2: Why it's a big deal
For those of you who are new to Glow, the team essentially took a year out from deploying solar farms to better align its incentive model with the vision of scaling solar globally where it can be most impactful.
Three months ago, we launched Glow V2, unlocking a way to scale solar region-by-region and fund it through global participation.
Glow V2 introduced:
- GCTL — a control token that lets users steer incentives toward regions, as well as supporting the GLW economy by providing permanent liquidity to the GLW token
- Region-based competition — currently Colorado, Missouri, Utah, and the Clean Grid Project
- Solar Miners — simple products that let anyone fund solar with USDC and earn GLW tokens
Glow is building a self-sustaining incentive economy that turns community participation into clean energy, fully verifiable onchain.
What makes this even more powerful is our recent App update, which further empowers the Glow community and rewards ongoing participation.
Glow App 2.0: Making Glow Easy for Everyone
One of the biggest barriers to onboarding new users into Glow has been complexity.
You had to jump across multiple app pages to:
- buy GLW
- delegate
- track rewards
- track mining
- follow impact
On January 12, 2026, Glow launched App 2.0, a single dashboard that replaces our complex multi-page app, offering a simple solution that promotes seamless adoption.
Our upgraded dashboard becomes the easiest way for someone new to Glow to:
- Track their Glow Worth
- Buy GLW
- Delegate GLW to farms
- Monitor their activity
- Claim rewards
- Earn Impact Points
- Track points and streaks via leaderboards
- Swap ETH to GLW directly
- Mint and stake GCTL
- Monitor Miners and their performance
This is a big deal because it turns Glow from an "interesting protocol" into a clean, simple, mainstream onboarding experience, which is critical for mass adoption.
A new kind of motivation: Impact Points and Leaderboards
Anyone willing to put their capital to work and support real-world impact deserves to be rewarded, and flex their impact footprint should they wish.
With Glow App 2.0, users earn Impact Points for participation, such as:
- Holding GLW tokens
- Delegating GLW
- Staking GCTL (3 points per GLW steered)
- Maintaining weekly streaks
- Participating in the ecosystem
- Purchasing Solar Miners
Impact Points will unlock future rewards (not yet disclosed), and a dynamic leaderboard will update weekly.
This turns Glow into a feel-good protocol where contributing to real-world impact is trackable and rewarding.
Further to the above, yesterday, January 28, 2026, Glow launched its Referral Program, allowing both referrers and referrals to earn Impact Points.
Since launch, we have seen 325 new visitors in under 24 hours, new GLW holders, and new delegators.
Among those new users, we saw a significant increase in global participation from Korea, the USA, Vietnam, the UK, Germany, and more.
As Glow's ecosystem evolves, so will the referral program, always aimed at rewarding ongoing participation.
The Bigger Vision: Scaling Solar Globally
David did not start writing code three years ago trying to build "a crypto product."
He wanted to innovate on a broken system with a scalable solution that, with adoption, could eliminate the need for fossil fuels and/or solve the climate crisis. An innovation so grand, it transforms how humanity interacts with the planet we call home.
Glow is building more than "a crypto product," it's building:
- A new clean energy financing mechanism
- A global open market for solar deployment
- An incentive model that increases global energy supply
Because Glow is now region-enabled thanks to V2, Glow isn't limited to a single grid or country.
The irony is, Bitcoin not only inspired Glow's mining model, but its evolution from V1 to V2:
"Bitcoin is using more electricity than the entire country of Argentina... There are tens of millions of people who live there, and Bitcoin uses more energy than all of them combined." - David Vorick
As such, Glow is already scaling across regions, with pipeline progress including:
- Doubling down on India with major additional solar capacity coming (including plans to add ~25MW in Rajasthan)
- Exploring new regions globally, including Lebanon and The Gambia
- In talks with the Argentinian government to deploy solar in South America in early 2026
Panel by panel, region by region, Glow is rebuilding the global grid.
Final Thought: A New Kind of Ownership
The reality is that most people can't invest in solar farms, nor can they influence where energy is built or verify its impact, but Glow changes that.
Glow has created a world where:
- Anyone can help fund solar
- Anyone can track the impact
- Anyone can participate in the global infrastructure
- Anyone can earn incentives for contributing
This is how solar scales at internet speed, powered by and for the people.
With a new solar farm listed for funding every Tuesday, are you ready to support real-world impact and earn rewards for contributing to Glow?
Start making your impact footprint today here.
How to get started
- Buy GLW (Glow's core token)
- Delegate GLW to a solar farm on the Launchpad
- Mint and stake GCTL, steering emissions to your Miner region for a reward boost
- Track everything in Glow App 2.0
- Join the community and help direct where solar gets built next