Chile’s Energy Sector Using Ethereum

Blockchain technology is not just popular in the finance industry. In fact, now, it is getting the attention of governments. Maduro’s Venezuela has come up with its very own oil-backed cryptocurrency. And now, Chile’s National Energy Commission has announced that it is going to launch a blockchain project. Its goal is to increase transparency, accuracy, and security of data that relates to the country’s entire energy sector.

On Feb 27, the pilot project was revealed by the CNE. The agency tweeted that Chile’s energy sector “is pioneering Blockchain implementation in Latin America”.

How exactly does it work? Prior to the trial project, the energy sector makes use of a centralized database. What this means is that it is vulnerable to man-in-the-middle (MITM) vulnerabilities. With CNE’s blockchain adoption, it is planned to consist of several stages.

The trial will involve CNE employees that will take datasets from the existing energy platform called Energia Abierta or Open Energy. Once the software has been used in order to verify the accuracy of the data, that is the time that it will be written to the Ethereum blockchain. And the good thing about this move is that the public will now have access to this information via several GUIs.

So what are its practical uses? During the initial phase of the blockchain project, it will see data that is relevant to the national grid capacity, average market prices, residential energy-generating installations, and other things that are recorded to the blockchain.

What Could Go Wrong?

But of course, this is still not a perfect project. There are still some things that need some corrections despite the promising benefits that it can bring to the table. For one, it is important to consider the possibility of human mistakes that could be logged into the blockchain. But of course, this is still considered good news since it shows the interest of the Chilean government in the blockchain technology.

According to Energy Minister Susana Jimenez, “We at the Ministry of Energy are interested in bringing blockchain technology down from a conceptual level to a concrete use case, with the understanding that leading experts consider it with the most disruptive technology of the last decade, one which can become a part of our daily lives in the coming years”.

Other Countries Using Blockchain Tech

There are different countries that have been using blockchain technology as well. As mentioned, Venezuela is using its oil-based cryptocurrency in order to be able to transact with other countries without any problems from US and European sanctions.

Estonia is another country that has been dabbling in blockchain technology. Estonia is even considered as an e-government pioneer that uses advanced data encryption technology. It makes use of the Public Key Infrastructure and eID that are all based on blockchain tech.

Blockchain technology presents a good number of benefits that encompasses not just the financial world. And though it is still in the early stage for Chile, this move is definitely going to be promising that it can make things more transparent and even more accurate.