A Smarter Way to Power Renewable Energy?
Let’s start with a real-world case that highlights blockchain’s promise. WePower, a Lithuanian startup, is looking to revolutionize how renewable energy projects raise funds. As traditional government subsidies for wind and solar start to decline, WePower proposes a new model: pre-selling electricity through blockchain-based smart contracts.
Here’s how it works: A developer building a solar or wind plant sells future energy output in the form of a digital contract using the Ethereum blockchain. Buyers, often businesses, lock in prices today and receive the energy once production begins.
According to founder Nick, these blockchain contracts are quicker, more transparent, and potentially open the market to smaller players and even individuals. And since these energy tokens are easily tradeable, a secondary market could develop, improving liquidity and access to clean energy investments.
Blockchain: More Than Crypto
While blockchain is best known as the backbone of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, its applications are expanding fast. By mid-2018, venture capitalists had poured over $1.3 billion into blockchain startups—already surpassing 2017’s total.
Major cloud providers like Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle now offer blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS), allowing businesses to test the waters without building infrastructure from scratch. Consulting giants like PwC and Accenture are jumping in too, helping clients explore how blockchain could transform everything from healthcare records to diamond tracking.
What’s the appeal? In theory, blockchains offer a shared, tamper-proof ledger of transactions that is more secure and transparent than traditional databases. They don’t rely on a single centralized authority, and each record is cryptographically linked to the next—making data modification nearly impossible without detection.
Enterprise Blockchain: Private, Permissioned, and Practical
However, not all blockchains are created equal. While public chains like Bitcoin are open to everyone, most business-focused blockchains are private and permissioned—meaning only approved participants can view or add information.
This setup appeals to industries like finance, where confidentiality is key. Projects like R3 Corda and Hyperledger Fabric, backed by IBM and Digital Asset, allow firms to use blockchain tech without exposing sensitive back-office functions.
And because participants are pre-approved, these networks skip the energy-hungry mining process found in cryptocurrency systems. This makes them faster and more scalable, which is essential for enterprise-grade use.
Blockchain Use Cases Taking Shape
From logistics to lending, industries are slowly integrating blockchain into operations. Here are a few examples:
- Finastra’s Fusion LenderComm: Built on R3’s blockchain, it simplifies syndicated loans by connecting banks and offering a unified view of loan data.
- Santander’s One Pay FX app: Enables real-time cross-border payments using Ripple’s permissioned blockchain—with faster speeds and lower costs.
- Everledger: Tracks the lifecycle of diamonds and other luxury items to verify provenance and reduce fraud.
- Accenture’s supply chain pilots: Streamline global logistics by allowing customs, shipping firms, and suppliers to access a single source of truth.
Even national banks are testing blockchain’s limits. The Bank of Canada and the Monetary Authority of Singapore have teamed up to explore how distributed ledgers could streamline international payments—a process still bogged down by incompatible banking systems.
Key Blockchain Adoption Stats and Trends
| Sector | Use Case | Blockchain Platform | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | Smart power contracts | Ethereum | Piloted by WePower |
| Banking & Finance | Syndicated lending, cross-border payments | R3 Corda, Ripple | Operational/Live |
| Logistics & Shipping | Supply chain transparency | Hyperledger, Accenture pilots | In testing |
| Luxury & Retail | Diamond provenance, art authentication | Everledger, Verisart | Active projects |
| Government & Regulation | Land registries, CBDCs | Various (Ripple, private) | Mixed results |
When the Blockchain Hype Meets Reality
Still, blockchain isn’t a cure-all. Not everything needs—or benefits from—a distributed ledger. Some early projects, like Honduras’s property registry, fizzled out. Others, like Stripe’s payment experiments, were abandoned after years of underwhelming performance.
“If you put garbage onto a blockchain, all you get is distributed, encrypted garbage.” — Kai Stinchcombe, True Link