Investors poured $300 million since the start of the third quarter into apps that will let people buy and sell energy with cryptocurrencies, Bloomberg reports quoting GTM Research.
“These companies are betting that people will increasingly use Bitcoin and other types of encrypted currencies for everything from selling solar power from rooftop panels to charging electric vehicles,” Colleen Metelitsa, a grid edge analyst at GTM said.
She said most of them are designing systems that run on top of a so-called blockchain layer that can use multiple types of digital currencies.
“There’s something alluring about blockchain’s ability to disintermediate the utility,” Metelitsa said.
She added that it is yet to be proven that blockchain can increase efficiency or add value to key utility platform solutions.
According to the source, there are now 122 companies developing products or services for the energy industry.
Most participants in the market are developing tools for peer-to-peer energy transactions.
Other types of transactions for blockchain may include trading renewable energy credits or wholesale energy. Providers of fuel cards for fleet vehicles WEX Inc. and FleetCor Technologies Inc. are also exploring blockchain transactions.