Energy markets form a complex ecosystem of actors. Wholesale energy producers create energy through various means, grid operators transport electricity over long distances and deliver it to homes and businesses, who buy it from local utility companies. The utilities act as resellers in this scheme and take on much of the financial risk associated with selling a commodity which is consumed long before payment settlement from consumers. However, utilities have high operation and marketing costs and charge a high markup on the electricity they buy from wholesalers. Karl Kreder, Co-founder of Grid+, a Consensys project, joins us to talk about how blockchain technology can help disintermediate utilities and allow consumers buy electricity directly from producers. The Grid+ Agent is a hardware device which sits in your home, is connected to your energy meter and can interact with the power grid. The Agent has built-in logic allowing it to respond to your energy needs and predict usage. It is also equipped with a Trusted Execution Environment and a wallet which keeps private keys secure and can make near real-time payments to the network. Topics covered in this episode: Karl’s background and how he became part of Consensys Energy A high-level overview of the energy market and the different players in this ecosystem Where lie the inefficiencies and how they can be improved The challenges facing the energy market today The Grid+ Agent and its functionality How the Grid+ Agent works and how it interacts with the grid Other potential applications for the Grid+ Agent The economics of the Grid+ smart contract and how it handles risk The Grid+ token sale Episode links: Grid+ Grid+ Whitepaper What is Grid+? - YouTube This episode is hosted by Meher Roy and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/206

As the ICO boom continues to drive funding and interest in cryptocurrencies, mainstream consumer applications are increasingly looking towards tokenization. One of these was social network Pepo, founded by veteran entrepreneur and previous founder of fab.com Jason Goldberg. Faced with the difficulties of integrating blockchain, they decided to start Simple Token – a company focused on building easy solutions for mainstream applications to use blockchain. Simple Token CEO Jason Goldberg and Chief Technology Strategist joined us to discuss the case for branded token, Simple Tokens architecture and the balance between easy user experience and decentralization. Topics covered in this episode: Jason’s long history as an entrepreneur and the turbulent story of fab.com The perils of raising too much money How the quest to tokenize social network Pepo lead to founding Simple Token The opportunity in tokenizing mainstream consumer applications How Simple Token uses Ethereum and sidechains to allow companies to issue branded tokens How Simple Token backs branded tokens through a staking contract on Ethereum The economics of Simple Token and upcoming ICO Episode links: Simple Token | The Bridge between Cryptocurrencies and Consumer Apps. Jason Goldberg - This Week In Startups Simple Token Pitch Deck Simple Token Technical Whitepaper On the Rebound from Epic Failure – Hacker Noon Simple Token Telegram Channel This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/204