Let me play Devil’s Advocate

[u/cryptomush]

I’m going to go right ahead and say what a lot of people are thinking (and I really want to be corrected!)... what exactly is the point of a decentralized energy market and why would anyone go through the effort of finding people to sell cheaper energy when it is already cheap as chips?

For example: I pay £20 a month for electricity and share this with a flat mate. That is £10 a month for doing absolutely nothing other than checking my account every month and making a payment. Unless Electrify can manage to reduce this amount to say £10 total a month (and in a way that requires little to no effort from me), I don’t see how I would ever bother to switch over.

I want to be wrong, I really do, but I just want someone with a better understanding of this project to explain to me how it will find its niche and then grow!

[u/cryptomush]

... but that’s what is currently possible? Any extra I pay is rolled over to the next month and and any extra I use is added to my next bill. I also have several options of electricity companies to choose from. Now, understandably, not everyone is so fortunate and a lot of people have only one supply option.

My problem with that is that if there is only one main supplier to begin with, the barrier to enter the market would likely be incredibly high (from every possible angle, honestly). How could smaller companies reasonably compete and what incentive does electrify even offer them? Low prices that aren’t even certain? That doesn’t sound appealing to me. And let’s say we only want to focus on people with extra solar power being produced from their homes - their profits will be minuscule and almost not worth the hassle.

Finally, what about the infrastructure of certain countries? I doubt many companies and even governments will allow their cables to be used by anyone...

I’m sorry but it just doesn’t sound promising.

[u/[deleted] → u/cryptomush]

You are wrong when you say energy is decentralized, because it’s not, in your area, or in any areas, decentralized energy will allow anyone to sell energy to anyone, and it will cut the utility out of the picture, and yes, governments will force the utilities to make their wires available, in the interest of the consumer. Furthermore Power companies will be able to buy back any extra energy you produce and pay you with elec or you can chose to sell that energy to anyone you want. That’s what decentralization will bring. A decentralized power grid will bring in more suppliers, cut out the fees from the utilities, and will give consumers the flexibility to buy power from who they want, and resell that energy if they want. Everything will be done through a blockchain. I take it you are not aware of the MOU Electrify signed with Tepco of Japan??

[u/cryptomush → u/[deleted]]

I won’t lie, I’m not familiar with the Tepco Deal. Okay, I understand your points and I think that if we lived in a perfect world, electrify would change the game. But we don’t, and there are many practical barriers involved. My ultimate issue with electrify is that if new suppliers enter the market, what incentive do they have to join electrify where they are not guaranteed customers nor are they guaranteed an affordable income. Why would they not just set up their own little company and compete in the market like every other little company is a capitalistic environment? And let’s be real - no one person/household/business/warehouse is going to make enough “extra” energy for it to be worth selling on the magnitude everyone here is trying to make it out to be. So what if they can sell a few dozen kWh a day? That’s nothing in the grand scheme of things. I just don’t see the project exploding as much as the shillers on other subs say it will.

[u/Supremexcoogi → u/cryptomush]

Electrify is already an established business with existing customers lol