Walmart made another stride into the blockchain sector today as its application for a patent to develop a crypto-powered electrical grid was granted. The retail giant, which has over 11,000 stores across 28 countries and generates in the region of $500 billion in revenues every year, already announced that it will be rolling out blockchain-based supply and delivery systems.
The patent applies to the development of an on-demand electrical grid and the use of blockchain technology to establish a network of electrical devices. It is anticipated that such networks could provide efficiency savings across a range of settings, including large businesses with multiple sites such as Walmart. Each device would be allocated a quota of cryptocurrency which would be used to acquire electricity, and then individual devices could share resources to ensure they remained operational. It’s the distributed ledger of blockchain technology which would allow system managers to view performance, identify inefficiencies and adjust the network accordingly.
The patent represents one of the first real-world applications of blockchain in the management of electrical resources. The technology is perfectly suited to such an application, offering automated peer-to-peer trading with built-in transparency and immutability. The possibilities in terms of improving energy efficiency and enabling the roll-out of sustainable energy are enormous.
Walmart isn’t, however, the first player to make moves into the use of blockchain in managing electrical resources. Power Ledger, working in partnership with the Clean Energy Blockchain Network, are already in the advanced stages of developing a platform which enables peer-to-peer renewable energy trading.
