Chile adopt blockchain technologies in order to maintain and monitor the country’s electricity grid.
The blockchain is much more than just cryptocurrency. Its essence defines it as a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), but whereas many people repeat the concept to simply explain the technology that sustains bitcoin and altcoins, others explore and exploit the potential of what some experts define as the most important advance for society since the appearance of the Internet.
An example of these advances are the efforts being made by The Chilean National Energy Commission[1], which at the end of February announced that they will be migrating to the use of blockchain technologies “to certify the quality and certainty of the open data of the national energy sector”.
Placing data in a blockchain ensures a level of transparency, trust, and security that is difficult to compare with those obtained through centralized information management. This is something that institutions understand well, so some data such as “average market prices, marginal costs, fuel prices and the compliance with renewable energy law” will be placed and obtained in real time in a transparent way through a DLT to not only facilitate a good relationship with the Chilean people but also to increase efficiency levels when doing research based on data, reducing bureaucracy and the need to corroborate information[2].
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This makes Chile a reference country on the adoption of blockchain technologies in the Latin American region, and at the same time makes Chile’s National Energy Commission a technological and political reference in the country.
According to official statements on its website, the executive secretary of the National Energy Commission of Chile, Andrés Romero, is quite optimistic about this technological innovation:
“The National Energy Commission has decided to join this innovative technology and we have decided to use blockchain as a digital notary, which will allow us to certify that the information we provide in the open data portal has not been altered or modified and left unalterable record of its existence”.
Likewise, while some public institutions defend confidentiality as a basic principle of their actions, this Institution defends that there is data more interesting to keep available and transparent to third parties, allowing them to increase the confidence of the people in the information provided.
“Public information is an important input for the decision making of investments and energy projects and many of our users use this information to decide technical, economic and labor aspects. That is why, through the use of this technology, we will raise the levels of trust of our stakeholders, investors and the general public that consumes the data delivered at www.energiaabierta.cl”[4]
This is an important leap forward in the adoption of blockchain technologies in key aspects of everyday life such as information and data management. Although Chile has remained under
