You Can Buy and Sell Your Own Digital Energy Units in 2019

Digital Assets

In the digital world, it was impossible for data to be transferred from one place to another without having the possibility of it being replicated. This is called “the double-spending problem” which prevented us from creating digital assets like money. Until 2009 where an anonymous person by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto have solved this problem using mathematics, cryptography, and computer science where he/they created the first-ever digital asset and called it Bitcoin. With the Bitcoin network you now have the ability to transfer “value” worldwide, and you along with all of the other participants in this network, are certain that this digital amount of value is being lost from your Bitcoin wallet and added to the recipient’s wallet. This network is called the Blockchain and is distributed across the globe without a central entity approving the validity of its transactions, instead the transactions are approved by validators or “miners” who invest their hardware and electricity to secure the network and are rewarded in return with Bitcoins.

Decentralized Apps (Dapps)

Bitcoin was only the beginning of the crypto journey. In 2013, Vitalik Buterin, a 19 year-old Russian programmer wanted to create a platform that would allow programmers to create all sorts of Decentralized Applications and not limiting the power of Blockchain technology to be used only as money on the internet. However, building this huge decentralized code-executing machine requires a lot of funding. So he launched one of the first ICOs or Initial Coin Offering which is a type of crowdfunding that uses cryptocurrencies to raise capital for his project, Ethereum. The Ethereum blockchain is now operating as planned with thousands of ICOs or, “decentralized tech start-ups” if you will, building Dapps on top of it. But wait what does this has to do with energy?

Energy Tokens

With Blockchain technology, you can now represent a physical commodity with a digital asset. Such digital assets are called “Tokens” and they can be bought and sold just like any other currency, and energy is no exception. An ICO in Australia called PowerLedger has tested this idea. Let’s say you are generating solar power and your neighbor needs some of it. PowerLedger allows for the trading, tracking and the real-time distribution of that power. Running this system will allow you to constantly monitor your electricity usage and so when you are not using your electricity it will feed it into another house, and if you need more, then you can just borrow from someone else in exchange for the network’s token, Sparkz. This system can operate on and off-grid making the generation and distribution of energy much more efficient than conventional methods.

And all of that can be done without the need of being approved by any regulatory body or a government. This can be very beneficial for countries like India or Indonesia where there are whole parts of cities disconnected from the grid and in desperate need of a better transmission and distribution systems. One of the main obstacles they face as they want to switch to alternative energy sources is regulation from governmental institutions. It’s fairly easy for one house to install solar panels, it’s a whole other thing to have an entire city coming together to build its own power plant. And the other problem with alternative energy is that if you generate so much electricity and you’re off the grid, that electricity just goes to waste unless you have expensive Tesla-like powerwalls to store it. What PowerLedger would allow these communities to do is share their resources on an open free-flowing energy market.

The company is set to launch it’s Proof-of-Steak blockchain in 2019 and has raised about $1 billion in market cap. No doubt that Blockchain technology will revolutionize our industry and make our economy much more global and open, but will all of these new ICOs deliver on their promises? that remains to be seen.

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