One of the REALLY cool ways I think Humanity can exploit the concepts of decentralization is Energy. Your traditional energy storage in many places is contingent upon a centralized infrastructure that then distributes energy from one source to many. Of course, the obvious problem with such a system is that if for some reason your main source of electricity is compromised, you're gonna experience blackouts in all the areas that are reliant upon that single source. Chop off the head, and the body is boned.

YOU SICK BASTARD.

Not only that, but many places in the United States for example, have access to few options for energy sources and are subject to the prices that those options fix for energy consumption. In short, a sort of "monopoly" exists for power usage in many places, and it's widespread enough to be nontrivial. Just like many different areas of human life, Blockchain technology has been applied to the idea of both decentralized production of energy as well as decentralized currency. Enter the PowerLedger Token.

What's The Motivation Here?

Besides the centralization and monopolization of power distribution (being one of the main issues with current grids), another interesting aspect of energy production is how it ends up being generated. In recent years, new renewable players have taken a strong foothold in the united states, such as wind energy and especially SOLAR POWER! The technology is slowly but surely reaching a point where economies of scale is catching up, and as a result, solar panels and related systems are steadily becoming cheaper and cheaper. It's a great thing, because if you want a distributed network on energy resources, the first thing you need is a way to generate energy effectively anywhere. Why not use the best source available for light years? Apparently, That gigantic death ball of fusion energy in the sky is useful for more than blinding presidents. Who knew?

Good God, STOP IT.

Don't believe in the efficacy of solar? The market does. In fact there are many places in many countries that have reached what's called Grid Parity, where solar energy prices are less than or equal to traditional grid prices. Oh baby, Solar is becoming a big ass thing, and Power Ledger is (one, admittedly, of a few, but PowerLedger is the most successful in terms of market cap. More on that later.) an organization that is trying to solve the problems with the grid and leverage the emerging popularity of solar power.

Power Ledger's Role (WHITEPAPER)

Power Ledger wants to establish an "energy trading" platform that starts with the people - Citizen Utilities - that "generate, consume and transact electricity" through the us of "DER" or Distributed Energy Resources like the aforementioned solar panels, batteries, and "microgrids". Essentially, the idea is to incentivize small "nodes" of energy generation that can be locally distributed and used in the communities where the energy is generated. Sounds interesting, huh? Tokenizing energy so that it can be freely traded either from a producer to the consumer, or between consumers.

So, the big question is, how does this all work?

Not gonna lie here, the idea is a bit complicated in terms of exactly how the energy goes from one person to another based on purchases. But, they make it clear that solar panel owners can sell their energy to other users who are on the same grid (their xGrid product, see brochure) . So, if you have excess energy that you generated through your solar panels, you can sell this to other energy consumers, and monetize your investment in the panels! They also have a platform where tenants in the same apartment complex or other clustered type residences can trade energy between themselves. Imagine that; didn't use a lot of energy? Need some more? Maybe your neighbor next door has a little extra that you can buy or trade for...things.

Non-Fungible Things, Baby.

The Token, and How That Works

The Power Ledger (POWR) Token is an ERC-20 Token that is used as a medium of exchange globally on the platform. In individual areas or countries, energy transactions are moderated through another token called Sparkz. Sparkz have a different value depending on where you're trading them from. For example, if two folks in Australia want to buy or sell energy from each other, they can do that through the Power Ledger platform and the Sparkz are gonna cost the same; approximately 0.01 Australian Dollars. In Thailand, yo're gonna pay 1 Baht for a Sparkz token. Sparkz tokens are issued against POWR tokens held in escrow, and the conversion from fiat to sparkz and back again is automatic. They're not sold on exchanges.

So, here's the breakdown: POWR tokens are used in the world at-large, and have a price based on the inflows, outflows, volume, etc. just like any other cryptocurrency coin or token. These are used for anything from speculation to purchasing the suite of products on the platform. It is inflationary, meaning that the number of POWR tokens will decrease over time. Sparkz handles the more granular local transactions.

The Financials and Asshole Opinion™

I am very much enamoured with the idea of trading energy because many moons ago, there was this little thing in the US called the Technocracy Movement (beware, digression ahead). This movement was established out of the ashes of the Great Depression and had some REALLY forward thinking ideas. For example, society and politics was seen not as something esoteric or soft, but something that could be molded and changed experimentally though social engineering. They wanted to take a scientific approach to the problems of resource distribution. Individuals called themselves "Technocrats" and the dream was to create the "North American Technate", which:

"will encompass the entire American Continent from Panama to the North Pole because the natural resources and the natural boundary of this area make it an independent, self-sustaining geographical unit."

On top of this, they wanted to divest the project of society from "Politicians, Finance or Financiers, Rackets or Racketeers". They wanted a world where technically minded people and technical professionals oversaw and moved progress forward. I'm gonna be honest; this is my absolute wet dream, and it was established, reached its peak and declined 56 years before I was even born. I say this with all seriousness: for FUCKS SAKE, why can't we have nice things?

Coulda Been You America. Damnit.

One of the most interesting (and related to this post) things that came out of the Technocracy movement was the idea of Energy as a currency. No shit, this was a thing. From Wikipedia:

"Since the basic measure common to the production of all goods and services was energy, he reasoned "that the sole scientific foundation for the monetary system was also energy", and that by using an energy metric instead of a monetary metric (energy certificates or 'energy accounting') a more efficient design of society could be made."

Sound familiar? Howard Scott, the founder of the movement would shit his pants if he lived to the present. This guy would have been a big time Cryptocurrency advocate. Read about him, really interesting guy.

SO, with that diversion outta the way, let's take a look at the financials:

It's rather impressive, and is a gnat's dick away from being in the top 100 Cryptos by market cap. the price and trading volume does quite a bit to show that there is some serious exchanging going on, and that means things are picking up in terms of adoption and usage. The Good Ol' In-flows and Out-flows. I love it.

I personally wouldn't mind getting in on this particular project, mostly because it's a solution to the "Assload-Of Energy Consumption" problem that is ever-so-present with PoW cryptos like Bitcoin. Wouldn't be cool if we could make value by producing energy, instead of consuming it? The only thing I would say is that since this does not have its own blockchain, it is clear that the idea is a bit undercut since it is based on Ethereum, a PoW crypto. I'm not hating on Ethereum (Shit, I wanna make a ERC-20 token myself!) but if your goal is sustainability and distributed renwable energy, wouldn't it make more sense to create your own chain based on PoS, or some variant thereof? Just a thought.

The business idea is clearly a financial success, and while I wouldn't dream of deeming anything that comes from me to be construed as financial advice (IT AIN'T) I would definitely look into this, keep an eye on it and hell, maybe even put some toes in the water and HODL a bit.

Thank you SO SO MUCH for reading, I really appreciate it. If you like what you read, please consider following and giving me other stuff a go. Also:

SHILL OF THE WEEK!

So, I'm a bit of a designer. I like making fun little tshirts and other things of value on Redbubble. SO, I made a shirt that I'm EXCLUSIVELY ONLY shilling on Publish0x:

You Too Can Look Like This Sexy Bastard.

Wanna be cool in front of all your nerdy Blockchain friends? YOU NEED THIS. Go to the LINK RIGHT HERE or simply click on the picture to have a look. I got stickers too. Put that shit on your car/bike/dog/QT3.14gf/whatever.

Until next time, keep your eye on the markets, and POWER (ledger) UP.