Romania keeping up with European Union Blockchain initiative

A new solution generated by a Romanian initiative, which proposes to optimize electricity transactions, has entered the Romanian market since May, Andreea Paul, President of the INACO think tank – Competitiveness Initiative, announced.

Bittwatt is a matchmaking platform that connects all market players (from DSOs to consumers) and provides a standardized blockchain protocol for sharing relevant business information, all the while creating a decentralized service for energy supply, billing and balancing. This system streamlines current-day operations by removing operational costs and transfer fees, all this within an automated workflow that also optimizes energy transfers on an hourly basis: it transforms normal consumers into smart consumers.

The Bittwatt initiative has already attracted over 25 million dollars and is listed in Japan and Singapore.

The platform will be available in Romania through the supplier Eva Energy (the first power supplier on the liberalized market in Romania) and in Bulgaria through Energy Market JSC and will allow its suppliers and consumers to publish their offers and requests for energy supply.

“We have reported as early as last year cartel issues, lack of transparency, artificially inflated prices etc., which disturb the procurement system and electricity prices. The situation is also valid for natural gas or fuels. Romania and the other countries of the world now have a solution to such problems, solution generated by a Romanian initiative,” Andreea Paul mentioned. “Bittwatt is based on the Blockchain system, the Ethereum technology, and Ethereum has a Romanian among its four founding members,” she added.

Last month 22 European countries have signed a Declaration on the establishment of a European Blockchain Partnership. The Partnership will be a vehicle for cooperation amongst Member States to exchange experience and expertise in technical and regulatory fields and prepare for the launch of EU-wide blockchain applications across the Digital Single Market for the benefit of the public and private sectors. This should ensure that Europe continues to play a leading role in the development and roll-out of blockchain technologies.

The European Commission also launched the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum in February and has already invested more than EUR 80 million in projects supporting the use of blockchain in technical and societal areas. Around EUR 300 million more are to be allocated to blockchain by 2020.

The list of countries that are signatories of the declaration includes Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, UK. Other countries, Members of the EU and of the European Economic Area are invited to join the European Blockchain Partnership.

A small amendment: Romania is not (yet?) on this list…