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Southeast Europe
May 4, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 19
ers to publish their bids and supply requests based on minimum configuration,” Stoicescu announced.
Immediately afterwards, Bittwatt will allow pay- ment in Bittwatt tokens (BWTs) and currency ex- change from Bitcoin and Ethereum to BWT. By the end of the year, it intends to apply the model to its Singaporean partner and an as yet unnamed Indian operator. The entire set of facilities will be phased in later, prioritising, of course, the capabilities of- fered to the final consumer, the company says.
A 2bn strong market
Stoicescu gives more technical description of the system and how it aims to overcome major obstacles. Blockchain technology demonstrates that it is pos- sible to implement such a system for the use in the electricity market from both the perspective of the business model and operational model, she claims.
"In popular terms, blockchain can be explained
as a decentralised database where every data
is verifiable and consistent. Of course, currently the transaction limit over blockchain is a chal- lenge for us due to the fact that worldwide we have more than 2bn consumption places. But I’m positive that this will change in the next few years, since many new protocols are already develop- ing and many organisations and institutions are preparing the transition to blockchain. "
The BWT as implemented by the platform has payment, escrow and protocol functionalities. Payments can be made both in the traditional manner and in the BWT currency, as long as both contract parties agree. If users chose to pay in fiat (the traditional method), the invoice value will be blocked in the BWT wallet until payment confirma- tion, so that the counter-party has the guaranteed payment. It is applicable to electric vehicle loading stations in order to enable energy-roaming.
Energy delivered on demand
A power plant doesn’t turn on when one enters the room and switches on the light, but this gives an idea of the system's ambitions. The goal as described by Bittwatt's White Paper is declared
as "creating a blockchain enabled energy trading market that is simple, transparent and delivers more value to all its users." One direct question deriving from here is whether Bittwatt and other similar systems are designed to replace the elec- tricity market as we know it now.
At this point Stoicescu believes it is premature to say a blockchain enabled energy trading market would completely replace the market as we know it now, "but definitely it will change the way the market operates these days."
"We intend our project to act as a hub for opera- tors and to enable demand response, smart grid operation and smart metering devices so that en- ergy production will come as a response to real- time consumption."
Prosumers are emerging as important market players and the blockchain-based energy trading seems to be the best fit to incorporate them.
Specially for prosumers, Bittwatt has thought of creating a clearing house so that the platform can cover the legal part of the settlement between the parties. In the future, the number of prosumers will grow a lot (it already has in countries like Germany) and they will be able to benefit from additional functionalities so that their excess production could be rewarded in Bittwatt tokens, Stoicescu says, ex- plaining why a dedicated clearing house is needed.
As already highlighted, national regulations are very diverse and based on centralised markets, and they seem to be an obstacle ahead of the develop- ments of decentralised blockchain-based energy trading. But there are other obstacles as well.
Bittwatt expressed optimism and openness in this regard though, explaining that trades below a certain threshold might not have to be notified to regulatory bodies.
Stoicescu explained that "all regulations are wel- come" as they tend to protect market participants and the security of the system itself. Most of them