MetaPower: Empowering Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading in the Metaverse With Digital Twins and Blockchain

Abstract

In recent years, the concept of the metaverse has gained considerable momentum as virtual environments become more immersive and sophisticated. As this technology advances, it can potentially affect various aspects of our lives, including how we produce, consume, and trade energy. Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading, facilitated by digital twins (DTs) and blockchain technology, could revolutionize the energy industry and promote sustainable energy use in the metaverse. In this context, we introduce a novel framework, called MetaPower, that leverages the power of DTs and blockchain technology to enable secure and decentralized energy trading in the metaverse. The use of DTs allows for creating a virtual representation of the physical energy assets, including generators, storage devices, and virtual power plants; a DT can be considered a building block of the metaverse. The framework uses blockchain technology to provide a secure and decentralized platform for energy trading. Our proposed framework, MetaPower, is implemented and deployed on the official Ethereum network. MetaPower shows promising performance results in terms of scalability, security, usability, flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and fairness.