Researchers at the state-funded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California have combined statistical mechanics and information theory to create a class of stablecoins, which they call Electricity stablecoin (e-stablecoin). These are intended to transmit energy in the form of information. Maxwell Murialdo and Jonathan L. Belof say their innovation would make it possible to transmit electricity without physical cables or a network and create a fully collateralized stablecoin that is linked to a physical asset, namely electricity, and whose value depends on its utility.
According to the scientists, the e-stablecoin will be minted with one kilowatt-hour of electricity plus a fee. The stablecoin could then be used like any other stablecoin for transactions or you can use the energy by burning the coin. There is also a fee for this. The entire process is controlled by smart contracts with a decentralized data storage cloud. You don’t need a central office to manage or cash out the asset.
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This would be the first time that a stablecoin with a fixed peg can be exchanged directly for a certain amount of a physical asset, according to the scientists. They explained that electricity has a very stable price and demand, and that the electricity used to mint e-stablecoins is sustainable. Investors could mint e-stablecoins in regions with low electricity prices and burn the tokens where electricity is more expensive.
Murialdo and Belof called their work a proof of concept and proved their concept mathematically. In order to develop a functioning e-stablecoin, it will probably be necessary to make further progress in order to increase the speed, transmission entropy and scalability of information machines, ” the scientists said.
Improved cloud storage or an alternative to it would also be required. Their research has theoretical implications for the way cryptocurrencies get their value, according to the authors. Their work was published Monday in the journal Cryptoeconomic Systems.
