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Blockchain in the Energy Industry

a South African enterprise – Bankymoon – which leverages bitcoin’s network to

enable remote payment systems (Dogo et al., 2019). For poor economies that suffer

from a lack of economic resources, such innovations bode well. As for the altru­

ists who want to donate to help schools carry on their activities, they can bypass

the traditional restrictions and dive right into crypto-based systems to contribute to

the school’s smart meter. Consequently, the schools will receive power credit and

instantaneously achieve energy self-sufficiency without unnecessary hassles from

intermediaries (Henderson et al., 2018).

Blockchain can also enable crowdfunding in the energy sector and increase

energy access in developing countries (Arnold et al., 2019). Numerous solar panel

schemes are still left unfunded in many parts of Africa, most of which are worth

less than 1 million USD (Brilliantova & Thurner, 2019). Crowd-financing could fill

in this funding gap; people around the world would be able to buy the photovoltaic

cells that will make up the solar panels on African homes (Higgins, 2016). The solar

panels are only installed when enough solar cells are pre-purchased. Throughout

the crowd-sale duration (a certain finite amount of days), the total an investor wants

to pay is assigned to the number of solar cells he can get for it (because of bitcoin’s

volatility) (Brilliantova & Thurner, 2019). These cells provide African households

with electricity, and households, in turn, pay investors a rental income in bitcoin

for several years. The blockchain platform is used in this case to fund access to

electricity.

7.2.5  Regulatory Reporting and Compliance

Regulators constantly expect energy and resource firms to have large volumes

of data that can be evaluated to identify non-compliance with legal and regula­

tory requirements (Diestelmeier, 2017). Collecting and analyzing the necessary

data is a big challenge for the latest technology and applications. There is also a

substantial danger of the data falling into the wrong hands and being misused,

exposing confidential business information and placing a company at a strategic

disadvantage.

Blockchain could theoretically solve many of these problems, facilitating account­

ability and encouraging regulators to access secure, transparent data safely at source

and encouraging businesses to keep tight control over what information is accessible

and who can access it (Diestelmeier, 2017). A significant side advantage of hav­

ing such a forum to exchange knowledge with regulators is that it will establish an

industry-standard data format, which is impossible at present (Bürer et al., 2019).

Energy companies are particularly worried about trade secrets. Private block­

chain networks offer pre-approved parties’ authorization for data and limited con­

sortium entry. Private and cooperative blockchains offer an intermediate alternative

before the required privacy features of business demand can be introduced by the

public blockchains (Bürer et al., 2019). Blockchain’s core points of focus on the elec­

tricity market are cost reduction, sustainable development and increased account­

ability without sacrificing privacy, which can bring a paradigm shift to the whole

energy sector of a developing country within a short span.