Possible Problems to Solve

1. Interconnected network of blockchains & scalability. Sjors, 6.2 Future Work, p54: 'The purpose of this work was to facilitate the shift from central to decentralised energy systems. Nevertheless, with the proposed architecture only one blockchain was covered. It will be interesting to see how one blockchain could communicate with others, moving balances from the neighbourhood level, to city (block) level, municipalities, countries and even continents. The result would be an interconnected network of blockchains, targeting grid problems from the bottom up, with market participation of the smallest of consumers. How the latencies would propagate and how connecting multiple blockchains would affect inter- and intra-performance and scalability is an interesting topic for future research.'

2. Blockchain-based contract ledger. Sjors, 6.2 Future Work, p55: 'It was already mentioned under the previous header that some market parties could face reshaping or, in extreme cases, extinction. It is realised that these changes cannot occur overnight, and will require gradual, step-wise implementation. One aspect that could help in the steady adoption of blockchain is the introduction of a blockchain-based contract ledger. CGI Nederland B.V. was closely involved with developing the C-AR, The Netherlands’ central database of grid connections. Due to its properties of irreversibility, security, transparency and privacy, blockchain is perfectly suited to host contract data. It is imaginable that contracts move from supplier to supplier in a cryptocurrency-like manner. It is even possible to use the better established proof-of-work consensus algorithms, as performance is not critical - looking at the current time it takes to switch supplier - and energy suppliers are automatically incentivised to conduct in mining efforts.'

3. Blockchain & Hardware - can it run on a smart meter or a charging station? Sjors, 6.2 Future Work, p55: 'A crucial aspect left out in the current work are the hardware requirements for running a blockchain client. If the technology would be able to run on smart meter technology, blockchain could be implemented together with the roll-out of smart metering infrastructure. Smart meters form the primary input of data to the system, an implementation there seems only logical. Another important implementation area is public charging stations. The technological state-of-the-art of these infrastructures should be leading in choosing a standardised blockchain platform.'