Erään hajautetun energiamarkkinasovelluksen lohkoketjutransaktiokulujen vähentäminen

Abstract

This thesis explains the working of a previously undocumented blockchain application developed for the energy sector. The application enables distributed market coordination for small-scale decentralized energy systems. An Ethereum smart contract is employed as a core component of the application, facilitating a marketplace for transacting electrical energy. A design science research methodology was applied to the application in an attempt to further develop it. The problem of high fees in the energy marketplace was identified, resulting from the smart contract's inefficient use of Ethereum gas. Two particular sources of inefficiency were identified, and solutions for fixing these inefficiencies were designed and implemented. Savings in transaction fees were created by replacing a function of the smart contract with off blockchain communication, and by editing the fund withdrawal mechanism of the smart contract so that it requires users to create fewer blockchain transactions. As a result, the smart contract's gas consumption was reduced by up to 11% in a certain use case. The reduction in gas consumption was not sufficient to make the deployment and use of the application economically feasible on the canonical public Ethereum blockchain. A Plasma child chain or a dedicated Ethereum blockchain were suggested as potentially more feasible deployment environments for the application. It was noted that the application relies on centralized components, and it is debatable whether its current blockchain-based implementation is justifiable.