BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGIES FOR ELECTRICITY TRADING REGULATION

Nowadays, there is an increasing interest in the adoption of Blockchain technologies within the energy sector, especially for peer-to-peer trading applications. However, it is currently missing to our knowledge a focus on how Blockchain platforms applied to the energy sector may concretely affect the electricity market regulation. Usually, when analyzing the relationship between Blockchain technologies and regulation, the starting point is the technology itself, and regulation is at most considered as a possible unidirectional incentive or disincentive driver of technology adoption. The present work aims to revert this relationship, namely analyzing how Blockchain technology might affect the regulatory mechanisms and the need for public intervention in the electricity market. In particular, the underlying question is twofold: how could Blockchain platforms affect electricity trading regulation? And, more generally, what are the possible interactions between Blockchain Code and Conventional Law?