To paraphrase the great American philosopher Forrest Gump, “bitcoin and energy go together like peas and carrots”. Bitcoin’s connection to the energy industry is well known, with valuable ancillary services such as lost energy monetization and grid stabilization becoming more valued by the day.
Bitcoin’s connection to energy now goes beyond typical mining applications. A Lightning project called Distributed Charge, developed by Andy Schroder and showcased in the Bitcoin 2022 Exhibit Hall, promises to advance Bitcoin’s integration with the energy sector in an exciting new way.
Schroeder uses Lightning to stream electricity payments, between a Lightning-enabled node embedded in a Tesla and a Lightning-enabled node embedded in a charging station. With this system, individuals can broadcast sats for electrons in a peer-to-peer energy market.
Distributed Charge is currently using the electric vehicle use case to pilot the idea, but one could envision the technology being applied on a much broader scale, helping utilities price and distribute electricity more efficiently, while allowing independent power producers to sell directly to customers in a more meshed grid system.
The node Schroder developed to operate in the charging terminal is elegantly designed to withstand the weather and its custom circuit board spans a project called Oratek’s TOFU Node Platform. The node can be powered by 7.5 to 28 VDC in addition to USB-C. It has an M2 socket for direct installation for a slim SSD or cellular radio.
Schroder envisions Bitcoin as the native payment network for the energy grid and that “every electricity meter should allow two-way payment and energy flows, and everyone should be able to easily buy and sell energy privately without needing to involve third parties or inflationists. monetary systems.
Needless to say, pricing and distributing electricity in sats via Lightning is an extremely exciting proposition with far-reaching implications. The Bitcoin community should help Schroder realize this vision by installing these charging stations and equipping more electric cars with its nodes.
Bitcoin 2022 is part of the Bitcoin event series hosted by BTC Inc, the parent company of Bitcoin Magazine.
This is a guest post from Fangorn. The opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.