Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Blockchain and the Future of Energy
North American Clean Energy | Jul 15, 2018
Blockchain is coming to the energy world and its impact will be massive. It will accelerate the transition to renewables and give us real and immediate ways to combat global warming, incentivize the production of renewable energy, and replace fossil fuels.
What is blockchain?
If you’ve heard of Bitcoin, blockchain is the technology that powers it. Blockchain allows data to be recorded on a distributed ledger in a way that cannot be changed.
Why does it matter?
The key benefit of blockchain as a technology is that it enables parties that do not know each other or trust each other to do business together and still feel secure. Applications running on the blockchain can take advantage of smart contracts that trigger certain events (for example, payment) when particular milestones are met – so long as some form of proof is presented that a particular milestone has been met.
More: Blockchain has the potential to do amazing things, but it needs a reboot
Together, blockchain as a technology, and the advent of smart contracts running on it, have the potential to change everything, much the same way that internet technology changed everything in the late 90s. In this analogy, Bitcoin is a lot like the Mosaic/Netscape browser. It’s an example of the dramatic and disruptive effects of blockchain technology: “Look, Ma! Instead of government issuing currency, a non-profit foundation can issue its own currency and have the market determine its value!” Bitcoin is only the beginning of the many changes blockchain will deliver.
How will it change the energy markets?
In the energy sector, we expect blockchain to have a massive impact. After all, the future of energy lies in renewable energy technology. And unlike fossil fuels, renewable energy relies on a set of assets that are more dispersed. In the future, many more businesses will find it advantageous to produce their own energy and consume it. Already, prosumers are finding it advantageous to put a renewable energy power plant on their roof of their homes – in the form of solar panels. These trends will be accelerated by the availability of low-cost battery technologies designed for both industrial and consumer use. Demand response and load management will also be key to building power plants to get to 100% renewable.
A distributed model
Power markets are moving from a centralized model to more distributed model. The fundamental conditions required to make distributed power markets work well are:
- automated production and consumption tracking
- validation
- payments
- transparency
- incentives
- security
These improvements will require a distributed, self-organizing system that reduces friction, routes around regulatory obstacles, and connects fractured markets.
That’s whyblockchain is key. The distributed nature of blockchain provides an unprecedented level of trust and transparency. This enables businesses to feel confident in transactions that require a high degree of trust. Breachingthe security of a central database is one thing – trying to fool a decentralized, global network of databases is almost impossible. The result is a reduced need for middlemen, faster transactions, and lower expenses than traditional centralized models.
See: How Blockchain is Impacting Canadian Fintech Markets
We’ve seen the impact of thisalready with cryptocurrency; Bitcoin and blockchain solved the double spending problem (i.e. spending the same digital currency twice) by ensuring distributed consensus. As a result, cryptocurrencies can be spent internationally in seconds, at low transaction fees, while working around normal third-party middlemen like banks. This has roiled the financial industry. Get ready for the same thing to happen in energy.
A fundamental shift
Blockchain will enable a fundamental shift in the distribution of energy by enabling people to trade energy among themselves. This will stimulate more renewable energy projects and accelerate the transition away from carbon-emitting electricity generation. Tokenization will allow producers to seamlessly connect with investors.
As a result, we’ll gain the ability to openly and securely verify/track/exchange energy and related data. This will strip away inefficiencies in existing markets and create brand new markets as well. Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading marketplaces will use blockchain to create an immutable, open, and secure, decentralized record of transactions.
The resultwill beautomated processes and transactions, significantly reduced costs, and inherently trustworthy sources of verified data. Also worth mentioning: Enabling data-driven investments will includetraditional utilities, not destroy them. They will allow smart cities, municipalities, city planners, and communities to adopt new technology and cooperate to reduce climate change, provide cleaner and cheaper energy, and create a more secure power grid.
Benefits
Some examples of how blockchain will help the energy sector...
Open up markets
The ability to aggregate and exchange secure and trusted data opens carbon offset markets to the approximately 90% of carbon emissions not covered under existing programs.
Eliminate middleman fees
People who have rooftop solar systems often have to pay a hefty fee to the utility company. The blockchain will eliminate these fees.
Improve reporting
The current reporting system is flawed; data is often self-reported (“I made four kilowatts” or “I hired a consultant.”). Plus, it's very expensive. Instead of going to a utility and just sitting there, data will be immutable, open, and verified.
More: WEF’s Sheila Warren: blockchain is the door to new digital reality
Reduce waste
The blockchain will minimize fraudulent energy production data. By capturing immutable proof of energy production, running open-source estimators to verify, and layering in blockchain to enhance security and trust, this challenge can be solved in a relatively low-cost, low-touch way. This not only cuts down on bad actors and bad data, but also creates a more robust incentive market by improving trust and accuracy.
Fix renewable energy incentives
Incentive programs have been around for decades, but they’re plagued by fraud, and ineffective at addressing the core issue of carbon emissions. Additionally, these programs tend to be location-specific, relatively complex to participate in, and onerous to administer. Blockchain, smart meter, and “oracle” technologies will establish a more trusted, efficient, and effective system for tracking and rewarding carbon displacement via renewable energy production.
Reduce shipments
Blockchain will help create an increasingly decentralized logistics processes (compared to today’s highly centralized version). The ability to administer even the smallest shipments at minimal cost translates into a reduction in shipments. This, in turn, will lessen the need to pool everything together in big warehouses.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association of Canada (NCFA Canada) is a cross-Canada non-profit actively engaged with cryptocurrency, blockchain, crowdfunding, alternative finance, fintech, P2P, ICO, STO, and online investing stakeholders globally. NCFA Canada provides education, research, industry stewardship, services, and networking opportunities to thousands of members and subscribers and works closely with industry, government, academia, community and eco-system partners and affiliates to create a strong and vibrant crowdfunding and fintech industry. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: ncfacanada.org
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Nov 12, 2026 Buying a Canadian money services business starts with identifying what the buyer will acquire: a legal entity, a registration history, contracts, records and possibly an active operation. The value of that package depends on whether it supports the services the new owner intends to provide. A FINTRAC registration entry is an important starting point. It does not establish the company’s financial condition, the quality of its compliance programme or the availability of banking relationships after an acquisition. A payment business may also need a separate assessment under the Retail Payment Activities Act, or RPAA. For investors evaluating a Canadian MSB company for sale, due diligence should connect registration status, actual activities, transaction structure and financial evidence before the parties agree a completion timetable. Verify the Canadian MSB registration and legal entity Begin with the target’s exact legal name, incorporation details, registration number and current status. Match the entity in the corporate documents to the entity in FINTRAC’s Money Services Business Registry. FINTRAC explicitly states that registration does not mean it endorses or licenses a business. It also states that it does not issue licences or certificates of registration. A sales presentation using the phrase “FINTRAC licence” should ...
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Nov 12, 2026 Crypto market cap is calculated by multiplying an asset's reference price by its circulating supply. A token priced at $2 with 50 million units circulating has a market cap of $100 million. The calculation estimates the value of that supply at the reference price; it does not total the money investors deposited. To understand a change in the ranking, examine both inputs and the provider's definitions. A larger number can result from price changes, supply changes, or revised reporting. Establish what the two inputs represent The arithmetic is simple, but neither input is self-explanatory. “Price” may be a reference assembled from selected trading pairs and venues, rather than the last transaction on the exchange you use. A provider may exclude observations or convert quote currencies. Two services can publish different estimates because their source selection and methods differ. Circulating supply is an estimate of units treated as available in the market under a provider's rules. It may differ from the number minted, the total recorded by a contract, or the maximum permitted under a protocol's current design. Locked balances, treasury allocations, burns, and scheduled releases require interpretation. A transparent methodology matters because identical arithmetic can still use ...
November 11, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Insight | Artificial Intelligence And Data, Capital Markets Infrastructure And Funding, Risk Compliance And Regtech Financial firms are putting AI agents into production well before giving them broad financial authority. That creates time to set identity, permissions and transaction controls before autonomous execution becomes common. On November 11, 2026, Bank of England Financial Policy Committee external member Jonathan Hall used his final FPC speech to examine what happens when AI agents get more authority inside financial firms. A Bank of England and FCA survey of 196 firms found that 80% already deploy AI agents and another 14% plan to within 12 months. Only 2% reported agents with broad autonomy, and none of those were in trading and payments. Finance is adopting agents quickly, but firms are still keeping people and hard limits around the decisions that can change money, positions or customer outcomes. AI Agents Are In Finance But They Are Not Trading Alone The 2026 Bank of England and FCA survey separates four levels of authority: Decision support lets an agent recommend an action while a person decides and executes it. Constrained execution lets the agent act inside preset rules. Conditional autonomy ...
November 10, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Insight | Capital Markets Infrastructure And Funding, Entrepreneurs Startups Small Businesses, Equity Crowdfunding And Alternative Funding A small group of large rounds is carrying Canadian venture totals while deal count and growth stage financing remain well below recent norms. On November 10, 2026, the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association published its Q3 2026 venture capital report. Canadian companies raised $4.3 billion across 397 deals through September, only 1% less capital than a year earlier. But 23 rounds of $50 million or more represented just 6% of disclosed deals and absorbed 58% of all venture capital invested. Deal count has also fallen every year since 2021. The national total is holding up far better than the number of companies getting financed. Six Big Rounds Carried 59% Of Q3 Venture Capital Q3 produced $1.35 billion across 129 deals. Capital was 1% higher than Q2, but deal count fell 15%. Six rounds above $50 million accounted for $793 million, or 59% of the quarter’s capital. That's a decent quarter for the companies that closed those rounds, but a weak quarter for everyone else. Mega rounds above $50 million totalled $2.5 billion across 23 transactions ...
November 11, 2026 | NCFA Story Intelligence | Competition And Market Structure, Wealthtech Investing And Trading, Regulation And Policy Canada is cutting bank fees and switching barriers after years of weak competition, high concentration and poor productivity. On November 7, 2026, the federal government proposed something Canadian investors have complained about for years. Banks would no longer be allowed to charge most investment account transfer fees, which typically cost about $150 per account. Ottawa also wants clearer transfer information and tighter timelines for moving investments to another financial institution. The fee matters because leaving can already be slow and frustrating. Receiving firms often reimburse the outgoing charge to win the account. That means a fee collected by the institution losing the customer can become part of the acquisition cost for the institution trying to win that customer. Canada's six largest banks hold roughly 93% of banking assets. The Competition Bureau was warning about barriers facing fintech competitors in 2017. Ottawa began reviewing open banking in 2018. A federal advisory committee later recommended an operating system by January 2023 and warned that government should not delay. January 2023 came and went. Real Time Rail also slipped years beyond its first expected ...
November 10, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Insight | Digital Assets Blockchain And Tokenization, Capital Markets Infrastructure And Funding, Regulation And Policy Funds, Collateral And Settlement Lead Canada’s Near Term Tokenization Opportunity On November 10, 2026, the Canadian Securities Administrators published its Project Tokenization Phase 1 findings, setting out where Canadian market participants see the strongest commercial opportunities for tokenization and what regulators plan to test next. The report draws on 233 organizations, 21 bilateral meetings and 80 survey responses, along with workshops attended by 281 people in Calgary and 491 in Toronto. Participants put investment funds, private assets, collateral, treasury and settlement infrastructure ahead of public stocks as the strongest near term opportunities. The report also cuts through one of tokenization’s biggest sales pitches. Blockchain can change how an asset is recorded, transferred or settled, but it doesn't automatically create liquidity, investor demand, broader eligibility or stronger ownership rights. Those outcomes still depend on the product, market, legal structure and infrastructure around it. The CSA now plans to take specific projects into Phase 2 through a 120 day public call for proposals. Firms may be able to use existing regulatory processes, tailored regulatory treatment or bounded testing in a ...
Nov 11, 2026 A positive work environment is key for any team that wants to succeed. Team morale is crucial for productivity, motivation, and job satisfaction. Engaging in activities that lift spirits and strengthen connections can lead to great results. Creating a positive team environment requires creativity, engagement, and some fun. Each activity can strengthen connections, boost motivation, and improve workplace dynamics. When teams focus on strategies to boost morale, they work toward shared success. These activities can lead to lasting memories and help build a stronger team culture. Here are some fun strategies to help improve your team's morale and make the workplace livelier. Fun at the Arcade Visiting an arcade spot is a great way to enjoy time together and build teamwork. Imagine your team facing challenges with various games. Whether it's racing or playing team games, the arcade encourages friendly competition and bonding. These fun experiences can help reduce stress and improve relationships among coworkers. Arcades offer many options to suit diverse interests and skill levels. The lively atmosphere invites everyone to relax and take a break from their daily tasks. Shared laughter and enjoyment can lead to better communication and teamwork when you return to the ...
November 10, 2026 | Market Activity | Fundraising, Investing, Trading, Leadership, Competition, Human Capital, Health A Brokerage Race Beyond $0 Commissions On November 10, 2026, Webull Canada added Nasdaq Basic Canada, giving clients free real time Level 1 quote and trade data across Canadian listed equities. The feed provides best bid, best offer and last sale information for stocks listed on the TSX, TSX Venture, CSE and Cboe Canada. Nasdaq says its consolidated feed can reduce Level 1 market data costs by more than 60% compared with traditional Canadian data packages. Webull isn't first to give Canadian investors free real time information. The more interesting story is how quickly another paid feature is becoming part of the basic brokerage account. Wealthsimple helped normalize $0 trading in 2019, Questrade followed in 2025 and Webull dropped its own commissions in April 2026. With the headline trading fee largely gone, brokers now need other reasons for investors to move money and keep it on the platform. Who Led Canada’s Race To $0 Trading And Free Market Data Wealthsimple Trade launched nationally on March 13, 2019 with $0 commissions on Canadian and U.S. stocks and ETFs. Questrade removed commissions on listed stocks and ETFs ...
November 10, 2026 | Market Activity | Artificial Intelligence And Data, Capital Markets Infrastructure And Funding A Toronto Fintech Riskfuel Analytics Brings AI Pricing Into BBVA’s Global Markets Workflow On November 10, 2026, BBVA deployed Riskfuel Analytics' neural pricing technology inside the pre-trade structuring workflow for autocallable products on its ePricer platform. Riskfuel is a Toronto fintech founded in 2019 that builds AI models for derivatives pricing. BBVA is a global bank with a large corporate and investment banking business. The deployment puts Canadian built AI directly into the calculations used to design complex structured products at a major global bank. Riskfuel's model is trained on BBVA's own pricing engine and uses more than 4,000 market and product inputs. The company says the surrogate was tested against more than 100,000 trades and can evaluate thousands of candidate structures in under a minute. BBVA had already added AI generated investment ideas to ePricer in September. Riskfuel goes further into the workflow by speeding up the numerical pricing work while BBVA's own model remains the reference. How Riskfuel Speeds Up BBVA's Autocallable Pricing Autocallables can depend on volatility, interest rates, dividends, maturity, coupon levels and several barrier conditions. Autocallables are structured investments ...
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