One of the defining structures in today's economic, political and legal systems is the ubiquitous presence of contracts, transactions and records of these actions. However, as our society has evolved towards the information age, the record systems have not kept up with the digitalization of modern systems until the realization of blockchain technologies. There are five main principles behind the idea of blockchain: a distributed database, peer-to-peer transmission, transmission with pseudonymity, irreversibility of records, and computational logic. Blockchain presents a solution to the issue of digitalizing records while providing a possibility for much more than just digital record keeping. This peer to peer, digital transaction record may play a significant role in emerging advanced energy systems. As the grid moves away from centralized distribution towards distributed generation, the decentralized communication platform of blockchain may play a vital part to realize this technology.

For more information, please download a linked document