Read Kay’s guest blog in the Industry Perspective’s section of Microgrid Knowledge.
The business world is smitten with blockchain, with energy no exception. Blockchain can solve some challenges posed by distributed energy and transactive energy pricing, but it is just a start. Kay Aikin, CEO of Introspective Systems explains.
It’s easy to understand why blockchain is hot — this technology offers a new approach to transaction validation, data sharing, and information security, all of which are challenges many industries face, including energy. Blockchain also has the potential to create new problems, particularly when paired with its digital sister, cryptocurrency. Can blockchain improve transactive energy and distributed energy processes? We believe it can help – as long as we focus on the right problems to solve.
Blockchain is a digital ledger of peer-to-peer transactions that is both public and decentralized. Data blocks are dispersed throughout the network, which makes it hard to change or cheat a transaction entry or perpetrate any other security shenanigans. While often paired with a cryptocurrency such as bitcoin, blockchain itself is not a currency application – it just happens to be very good at verifying and reconciling transactions such as buying and selling currency, or for buying and selling energy.
