Following a successful US$30 million funding round, Electrify.Asia, Southeast Asia’s first ecommerce marketplace for electricity, today announced a partnership with Streamr, the first fully functioning decentralised marketplace for the world’s real-time data.

The collaboration will see the two blockchain-based projects explore integration of user data from Electrify’s IoT device -- the PowerPod - putting users back in control of their data.

As part of their project to develop a smart contract-driven energy marketplace including peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading, Electrify.Asia will be deploying its proprietary IoT device, the PowerPod.

The PowerPod accurately tracks and audits energy production from small-scale producers before logging the data onto a blockchain, a key factor in P2P energy trading. The same data, along with other relevant environment information, will be able to provide valuable insights to parties both within and beyond the ecosystem.

“With Streamr, which enables real-time data trading at the micro level, there is a very real chance at breaking the control that large entities have over user-generated data. A very natural synergy exists between both projects. They both want to create a fair environment with equitable outcomes, where there is conscious choice-making. Ultimately, the long-term value we are driving is a greater awareness and ability to choose,” said Julius Tan, CEO of Electrify.

Streamr is aiming to be the world’s leading information marketplace where users can buy and sell real-time data from IoT and more traditional sources like finance, commerce, travel, weather and social media.

A McKinsey report found that while data has proved to be a key driver for business growth, concerns over data privacy have also emerged strongly. As the amount of data and its variety of sources exponentially grows, users may not even be aware of how their data is used.

Streamr’s platform will allow users to take ownership of data generated from their devices, facilitating information transfer from buyer to seller directly and, according to permissions defined by users themselves.

“We know there is a huge injustice at the heart of our modern economy,” said Henri Pihkala, CEO of Streamr. “People are generating data, but are unable to personally realise its value. Instead others are reaping the rewards. Like Streamr, Electrify, shares the same values and a similar technical vision. We both want to utilise the power of decentralised networks to put ordinary people back in control.”

“I’ve been so impressed with Electrify’s current capabilities. We can’t wait to start giving Asia’s PowerPod users the chance to monetise their data through our marketplace in a few months’ time,” he added.

Onboarding for Electrify’s PowerPod is expected to be completed by the launch of Streamr’s marketplace in the second quarter of 2018.

Electrify is currently heading a pilot of this project with data-collection from the PowerPod at 5-minute intervals through wi-fi, 3G, 4G and landline connections.

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