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Distributed Autonomous Energy Organizations 225

to secure data in the distributed ledger. Evolving and ill-defined descriptions
of blockchain are exacerbated when combined with the disparity of defini-
tions around AI. Together, this will continue to challenge regulators seeking
to establish policies and regulations for blockchain application to the
energy sector.
Public PoW blockchain solutions also have several gaps related to secu-
rity, functionality, cost, and energy efficiency. A major pitfall is the excessive
use of energy in solving the puzzles (Deetman, 2016). Another challenge is
that these nodes are widely witnessed and may lack the necessary privacy
considerations. Some PoW servers are in countries that have been accused
of economic espionage and theft of intellectual property. PoW consensus
algorithms can also add prohibitive latency issues to time-sensitive transac-
tions. Another challenge is the change in functional and nonfunctional
requirements as well as the technology stack needed to integrate the block-
chain technology that ensures system manufacturing tracking throughout
the development lifecycle. Related challenges for implementing blockchain
to facilitate supply chain security include the following:
• Multiple vendors are involved in product and systems development as
well as the chain of custody. Vendors have different levels of resources,
unique constraints, and other considerations to keep in mind.
• Vendors might be using different blockchain technologies that are not
interoperable with each other or with the data being tracked. However,
an intermediate node between different blockchains and databases can
facilitate functionality in a single overall common blockchain.
• Different data sets for business ecosystems and supply chain functional
and nonfunctional requirements must be integrated into a blockchain
across different data boundaries.

12.5 ROADMAP FOR WHEN TO USE BLOCKCHAIN
IN THE ENERGY SECTOR

Blockchain has several properties that facilitate more secure, distributed
autonomous energy organizations. An overview of some of the properties
is reviewed in Table 12.1.This table also provides a comparison of the tech-
nical aspects of blockchain by vendor to help energy-sector stakeholders bet-
ter understand some of the differences with DLT.
Examining the different technical specification requirements of different
blockchain solutions suggests that there are some benefits of blockchain tech-
nology for a DAEO. Some of the benefits include, but are not limited to: