Power Ledger at Australia’s first national Blockchain Week 2021
The first ever national Blockchain Week successfully came to a close on Thursday. Launched by Blockchain Australia, this 4-day long Australian Blockchain Week featured 50+ sessions led by industry leaders, academic researchers and government officials from OECD, Austrade, ASX, IBM, KPMG, and Binance Australia. The week featured a mix of sessions on location in Sydney and Melbourne, as well as virtual sessions spanning across all members and attendees, in Australia.
Commissioner Cathie Armour, of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), expressed the commission’s support for the country’s cryptocurrency industry during the panel discussion on ASIC Perspective – Engagement with Innovation. Armour said, “when we’re talking about new innovations like [DLT], or new products like various crypto asset products, from our perspective at ASIC, we are really interested in how those products can be utilized to improve how our financial system operates.”
Hema Raman, a senior regulatory advisor at ASIC has also added that “It’s important to take the opportunity to acknowledge that the industry is [also] keen for more specific guidance, and where we’re caught is the uncertainty around regulatory perimeters.”
As part of the NFT’s — Ready for the Mainstream? session on Tuesday, Power Ledger’s Global Head of BD & Partnerships, Vinod Tiwari, presented on “Peer to beer: Swapping Solar for Slabs on the Blockchain.”
Power Ledger announced Australia’s first Peer-to-Beer exchange program with Carlton United Breweries’ Victoria Bitter. This program called Solar Exchange allows participants to exchange credit on their power bill — obtained from generating excess solar at home — for VB.
Vinod also has answered a few additional questions received from community members.
Q: Can any other forms of currency be used in other projects in the near future?
A: While Beer acts as a currency of exchange in the CUB project, this exchange currency could easily be in the form of tins of macarons or Mobile minutes or credits towards new phones, for the similar projects in Food and Beverages and Telecom sector.
Such loyalty P2P can also be used by charities to help households in energy poverty. In countries such as Australia and Ireland there are projects actively under consideration where some large energy companies and charities are teaming up to provide surplus renewable energy to households in fuel poverty. Power Ledger’s blockchain platform could enable the tracking and visibility of these transactions in real-time to all the stakeholders, which would help reduce retailer churn as well as support the desired brand engagement.
Q: What are the direct incentives or benefits for companies to join a program like VB exchange?
A: VB will receive some solar credits it obtains under the exchange from the energy retailer and re-invest them back into the program or towards the business’ broader sustainability goals.
You can read more about our partner Carlton United Breweries here. If you have any further questions, please leave comments below!
About Power Ledger
Power Ledger is an Australian technology company that has developed a blockchain-enabled renewable energy trading platform that is now available in more than nine countries, across four continents, enabling customers to access and trade cheaper, cleaner electricity. Power Ledger’s technology won Sir Richard Branson’s global Extreme Tech Challenge award. The company has built a series of products to enable energy trading, renewable asset financing and renewable energy credit markets.
