8. Communication Behavior
1. Smart Contracting
As mentioned in 3.2.2 Energy Smart Contracts the grid is the main component of the network and links the other components.
To fill the smart contracts with data, the Matlab simulation transfers the generated data to the JavaScript webserver. There are four individual smart contracts which are concluded in between the grid and the other components.
The data which is transferred from the Matlab simulation will be inserted into the smart micro contracts, as visualized in the following image.
Smart contracts are saved and reproduced on a distributed storage platform, they are prefabricated logic in the form of code and they specify what requirements exactly needs to be checked during a transaction.
2. Executing Smart Contracts
In order to explain how smart contracts are executed, two parties, Load and Grid, are considered as an instance of the process.
The stakeholder Load wants to buy energy from Grid and agrees to pay upon arrival of the delivery. The Grid wants to be sure that the payment will be received and the both benefit from an automated billing process.
The Load owner transfers ethereum to the smart contract and the Grid sends energy in form of energy tokens as exchange to the Load.
The smart contract acts like an escrow and holds the transferred amount of ethereum until the Load owner confirms the arrival of the item. After the confirmation the transferred amount of ethereum will be released to the stakeholder Grid.
Involved parties can gain the following advantages from using smart contracts:
Level of autonomy
Security
Speed and ease of use
Cost-savings
Immutability
Accuracy
Reliability
Trust
By interpreting data, a smart contract can verify its own conditions. To guarantee the proper execution, every smart contract runs on every node.
The process of smart contracting is as follows:
The smart contract, as a code, is included in the blockchain
The stakeholders are involved anonymously
The transaction and contract between two parties are recorded
The smart contract is interpreted and automatically executed by the specified terms and a trigger event
The involved stakeholders can protect their privacy while it is still possible for regulators to monitor market activity for the data implied in the code
While using smart contracts, data is recorded in real-time and with instant feedback.
[Berentsen, Schär, Universität Basel, 2017]
[Antonopoulos, O'Reilly, 2018]
[Küfner, 2018]
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