Everyone already knows this: power is often in the hands of the few, not the many. All of us rely on centralized points of authority that enable us to go about our daily lives, allowing these few to continue their tight grasp on the true independence that decentralization would allow. Mostly it’s because many of us don’t realize that an alternative reality could be possible, but in the grander scheme of things, it’s because centralized seats of power keep us complicit in the various systems of complete dependence that few venture to question.
True democracy, however, only happens when power is spread out amongst different players. The more seats power lies in, the more difficult it is for any of the players to do what they want and get away with it. Put it this way: if the only 5 utility companies in your city started charging you an extra $500 per year to light your home and keep you warm (or cold), and solar energy panels don’t exactly cost within your home appliances budget, what choice do you really have?
Another reason decentralization of power should occur is precisely in the root of the very verb: power, when centralized, is not privy to the problems of the non-central. Did you know, for example, that at least a billion people in the world still lack household electric power? That’s exactly how many people the entire world had at the beginning of the 19th century. Just by being off-grid, rural areas all over the world have difficulty accessing the electricity most of us take for granted. Take away someone’s access to energy, and you radically change his lifestyle. No more studying after 5pm, for example. Showers that can’t last longer than 5 minutes since the water is too cold. A hot cocoa to make those post-shower shivers better? Forget about it.
Power and energy should be shared and many of us, especially in the 21st century, have evolved into more than just mere consumers. We have become digitalized, and as a result, more informed. We know the earth deserves better than all that burning of fossil fuels. Many of us are capable of producing our own solar energy, some even harnessing the power of wind and water to get theirs. We already have the answer.
What’s holding us back is what we’re allowed to do with this energy, with this power. The power of self-production, the power of self-education, the power of self-provision. Market rules set by authorities often make it challenging for individuals to access or buy clean energy peer-to-peer, since regulatory frameworks usually make it compulsory to exchange electricity through a centrally-approved network.
While initially conceived as the basis of famed cryptocurrency Bitcoin, blockchain technology has now become a mainstay topic on everyone’s lips, mostly because of how it has revolutionized the way we transact. Today, banks, exchanges, trading platforms and energy companies form part of the centralized structure we all know so well, but tomorrow, end customers and energy consumers will no longer be reliant on these centralized entities.
That tomorrow isn’t far away. Allowing peer-to-peer transactions, blockchain systems do away with the need of intermediaries, or central authorities. Once our role as individual consumers and producers—prosumers—is strengthened in the market, we will all be able to directly buy, sell, and exchange energy autonomously.
Energy is at the heart of all interconnections. Prosume Energy aims to harness this exact energy, connecting individuals through its platform and giving them the power to choose how they exchange theirs.
To find out more, visit us at https://prosume.io
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