In an exciting development, Chinese researchers from one of the top universities, Fudan University, claim to have developed a decentralized exchange meant for unused power.
A patent application was filed and revealed on August 3. Initially, the application was submitted in January 2018 and talked about the detailed procedure of Bitcoin-based exchange and how it works.
Theoretically, an exchange is developed for electricity which assigns energy buyers and sellers as nodes on the blockchain network. This enables them to trade the unused electricity securely without involving any third party in between.
The entire system makes use of smart contracts. Nodes broadcast the requests of sales and purchase over the network which are then connected with the matching requests using smart contracts. This way a transaction is made and the whole mechanism is a lot similar to the decentralized cryptocurrency exchange.
Focused on waste cuts
The primary goal behind developing such an exchange is to utilize the excess renewable energy generated in Chinese households using solar power.
“Households then have no other choices but to let the unused solar power go to waste because they don’t have a direct way of exchanging electricity,” said the researchers.
A digital currency would be used to make the transactions between the sellers and buyers over the blockchain network, revealed the patent application.
However, there is no much clarity about the specific cryptocurrency that will be used. So far, the research team has only revealed that they made the system using two blockchain networks.
The document further states that, “This idea can be achieved in either a public, private or a consortium blockchain. And in this case, the system has been developed on IBM’s Hyperledger platform as well as the Ethereum blockchain, to make electricity tradeable and shareable within a community.”
Various Attempts Have Already Been Made
This is not the first time that attempts like these are made. Last year, the Australian government allocated $8 million AUD for the development of blockchain-powered smart utility project for better distribution of energy systems.
It is interesting to see that noble attempts all around the world are being made to conserve resources and to bring transparency to the system using blockchain. For now, we would have to wait to catch the real action on the Fudan’s University project and see how the development unfolds itself.
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