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Blockchain
May, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 11
“Making a parallel with the way people could work their money until now and seeing the way they do it now (electronic wallets, cards, etc), we could say that we see the future systems operating automatically, similar to the way stock market works today (based on demand-response),”
she explained.
Rival start-ups from Romania
Earlier this year, another Romanian start-up, Re- start Energy, which is already active in electric-
ity and gas supply, raised $30mn in cryptocur- rencies by issuing 400mn MWAT tokens in an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) aimed at financing a blockchain-based trading platform for renewable energy, including a complex franchising system
in order to build “a global energy supply platform using blockchain protocol to democratise a sector burdened by bureaucracy and transaction costs, freeing up capital, saving consumers money, help- ing local small producers earn more and allow- ing real peer to peer direct energy trading using existing infrastructure”. More specifically, Restart Energy plans to expand its energy retail busi- ness (including by franchising) to more than 45 countries with deregulated markets and generate
$3.78bn in revenues through 2023 by delivering 189TWh of electricity (including through its franchisees).
Bittwatt has come up with a somewhat simpler business model, perhaps a wise decision given the already high complexity generated by the blockchain technology used. The business plan envisages a turnover of $690mn (notably its model does not include franchises) and a 22% profit margin. Its ICO, which took place in April 2018, had a target of $30.4mn, and was declared successful at above $25.3mn. All tranches were successfully closed as of April 26.
The Bittwatt co-funders, Stoicescu and Christian Hagmann, are experienced in both the IT and the energy sectors. In 2017, after more than 20 years in the energy sector, Hagmann started working as advisor on the ICO of Coss, a Singapore-based crypto-one-stop-solution platform, and also started developing Bittwatt. With an IT academic education, Daniela Stoicescu co-founded Bittwatt after having previously carried out several development projects for the national power distribution and transportation networks.