Could a blockchain-based electricity network change the energy market?

Blockchain-enabled energy trading could help lower carbon emissions but efficiency and privacy issues must first be overcome

The blockchain. It is the much-hyped, virtually foolproof digital ledger that allows cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin to flourish without the need for banks and governments, and promises to enable everything from the creation of ethical supply chains, to the ensuring of instantaneous payment on delivery of goods and services agreed to in immutable smart contracts.

The techno-utopian predictions for this system ignore one crucial detail, however. The intense data processing required by blockchain pulls in an extraordinary amount of electricity, and widespread use of it would drag global energy markets into the abyss - and bring the world's carbon emissions budget down with it.