The purpose of this document is to create a loyal and accurate depiction of the applicability of blockchain technology in the energy industry and the varying degrees of success in which specific applications are being adopted by the global energy community. Since the inception of blockchain technology in 2009 and all the way to 2016-2017 (when the technology’s popularity reached its historical peak), there have been hundreds of organizations embarking in the development of energy use cases and disruptive new business models enabled through the implementation of blockchain-based solutions. However, many of these use cases struggled to make it through a theoretical/research stage, and were unable to scale into commercial-grade solutions due most of the time to either inherent technologic limitations or regulatory roadblocks that challenged their business models. As the technology (and the ecosystem of developers) matures, blockchain’s spectrum of valid energy applications is seemingly converging in few niche areas where the value proposition of the technology creates a proper response to ongoing problems the energy industry is facing. In a similar way, the utilization of different underlying infrastructures used to build and deploy these solutions seems to be consolidating around a handful of platforms. Initiatives that managed to harness substantial initial support from the global energy community have seen its adoption slow down until the point of almost disappearance, while others that started later or with a different approach are still growing in overall usage. This document will be split in three blocks. The first one will aim to create an accurate depiction of the transformative potential of blockchain technology, both in a broader sense and specifically in the energy sector. The second block will elaborate on blockchain-enabled specific solutions and use cases that are generating business value in 2020, and will include an attempt to quantify such business value. Finally, the third block will include an analysis of current market trends and will attempt to identify the areas of the energy industry where blockchain technology will likely (or will not) inhabit moving forward.
