![]() Professional-services firms such as Accenture and PricewaterhouseCoopers are lining up to advise clients on the new technology. Cloud-computing platforms from Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and others let users experiment with using blockchains in their businesses. Crunchbase, a business-information firm, reckons that in the first five months of 2018 blockchain startups raised more than $1.3bn from venture-capital firms, compared with around $950m in the whole of 2017. The blockchains that run cryptocurrencies (see diagram below) could have far wider applications than tracking the transaction history of electronic cash. Such contracts would be as easily tradable as any other crypto-asset, creating a secondary market in power agreements. Contracts on a blockchain could be offered off the shelf, allowing smaller companies-and perhaps, one day, individuals-to use them too. Big energy users such as foundries and aluminium smelters already negotiate such contracts with power stations, but they are often complex and time-consuming. Using a blockchain offers several advantages, says Mr Martyniuk, who used to work as an energy trader. Customers will buy a smart contract now, running on Ethereum’s blockchain, that will provide them with power later. So his firm wants to help developers of renewables raise money by selling the rights to the electricity their plants will produce once built. ![]() The government-guaranteed prices that have propelled growth in wind and solar energy around the world are being cut back, says Nick Martyniuk, WePower’s founder. WEPOWER IS a Lithuanian startup that aims to change the way renewable-electricity projects are paid for. ![]()
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