Author: Jules Besnainou

Blockchain in Energy & Industry Raises $1 Billion – and Heads into Challenging Times

Jules Besnainou
Posted on by Jules Besnainou
Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of keynoting the second edition of EventHorizon (EH), the largest conference on blockchain in the energy space. The bar for this event was set impossibly high after the last edition paved the way for a year of extraordinary developments in the space. The EH team delivered an even more impressive production, turning an old Berlin power station into a futuristic spaceship, and spoiling us with shows of lights, violins and acrobatics – not... Read More »

From the Brooklyn Microgrid to EXERGY – A Conversation with Lawrence Orsini, CEO of LO3 Energy

Jules Besnainou
Posted on by Jules Besnainou
Article contributor: Jonathan Koch, Junior Analyst, CTG LO3 Energy is the organization behind the Brooklyn Microgrid. The company recently announced the launch of EXERGY, a blockchain-based energy marketplace that aims to empower consumers with access to and control of their energy data, and redefine how they interact with energy markets globally. To learn more, we spoke to Lawrence Orsini, the company’s CEO, who will join us at next week’s Cleantech Forum San Francisco on January 22-24. Jules Besnainou: What is the... Read More »

AI, Blockchain and Hype in Cutting-Edge ICT: Thoughts from the road

Jules Besnainou
Posted on by Jules Besnainou
In the past two years, CTG has been building a research stream and practice to help corporate and investor clients gear up for new, ever-faster waves of disruption coming from the software world – our At the Cutting Edge research. In the blockchain space, for instance, we have been helping corporates understand relevant use cases and connecting them with the right innovators. A few weeks ago, we held a private executive summit on Blockchain in Energy & Industry in Boston,... Read More »

Blockchain and Supply Chain Financing: A Conversation with Skuchain

Jules Besnainou
Posted on by Jules Besnainou
On November 9th in Boston, we will be hosting our  executive summit on Blockchain in Energy & Industry - a good excuse to catch up with some of the most interesting projects happening in the space. Founded in 2014, Skuchain is applying blockchain technology to the digitization and financing of the supply chain. To learn more, we spoke to Rebecca Liao, who heads Skuchain’s Business Development and Strategy, and to Ranga Krishnan, the company’s VP of Technology, who will join us... Read More »

Blockchain and IoT: A Conversation with Dominik Schiener of the IOTA Foundation

Jules Besnainou
Posted on by Jules Besnainou
In its landmark Device Democracy report a couple of years ago, IBM highlighted a series of challenges that connected things would face when scaling from the tens of billions to the hundreds of billions in the coming years. Among these challenges, cost of connectivity, the erosion of trust in the internet, and broken business models for connected devices stood out as hurdles already affecting IoT innovation. [caption id="attachment_15140" align="alignright" width="200"] Dominik Schiener, Co-Founder, IOTA[/caption] The report pointed out that using... Read More »

Diving into blockchain use cases: Wholesale energy trading

Jules Besnainou
Posted on by Jules Besnainou
Blockchain technology is gaining momentum in the energy sector. In our latest State of the Market, we tried to give a first overview of this ecosystem – the innovators, corporates and investors making bets in the space. While this state of the market is already in need of an update, our assessment is that there is an even stronger need for understanding specific use cases and deployments. Which ones are actually getting piloted? Why use blockchain for this problem? How... Read More »

Blockchain meets Energy: State of the Market

Jules Besnainou
Posted on by Jules Besnainou
Was it only a week ago? On February 14 and 15, two communities met in Vienna, Austria to discuss the promise, prospects and challenges of applying blockchain technology to the energy sector. To many in the audience, Event Horizon 2017 felt like a turning point. Energy professionals, caught by surprise by the rise of distributed generation, wouldn't miss the next wave of disruption. Blockchain innovators, touting the benefits of decentralization, were ready to rumble with a notoriously inert industry. The enthusiasm in... Read More »

Blockchain meets Energy: Building the Community

Jules Besnainou
Posted on by Jules Besnainou
For followers of our At the Cutting Edge subscriber research, the promise of using blockchain technology to improve distributed energy, IoT and logistics is nothing new. In fact, throughout 2016, you have observed organizations like LO3, Filament and Grid Singularity enter strategic partnership with large enterprises, deploy pilots and make the headlines. Here is our deal timeline for the year: Leveraging blockchain technology in exchanges of electrons and data makes sense. It’s great at securely processing transactions and registering ownership, meaning... Read More »

Gene Editing: The ever-hotter CRISPR

Jules Besnainou
Posted on by Jules Besnainou
During the inaugural Cutting Edge session at Cleantech Forum Europe a few months ago, biologist Anna Gilles explained the basics of CRISPR to an audience of energy investors and corporates. This method, re-discovered five years ago and dubbed "the copy-paste of genome editing," has revolutionized the field and allowed scientists around the world to edit organisms in an easier and cheaper way than was previously possible. The rapid rise of CRISPR-related medical research has been inspiring – as we wrote... Read More »

Augmented Reality: All Eyes on Industrial Applications

Jules Besnainou
Posted on by Jules Besnainou
Three months into the release of Pokémon Go, there is a good chance you have bumped into one of its estimated 100 million players. The game’s hype may be short-lived, but there is no denying that it has taken the world by storm. What is less commented on is that this represents the first major consumer breakthrough for augmented reality (AR). Indeed, one of the game’s innovations is to layer fictional characters on top of the reality captured by your... Read More »