Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) company BlockApps has partnered with software consulting firm Optimum to develop a blockchain solution for tracking energy usage.

A founding member of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), BlockApps is the developer of a cloud-agnostic blockchain platform, STRATO, designed to serve as a flexible base layer for various business network transactions and activities.

Optimum is a software consulting firm focused on the oil and gas, manufacturing and construction industries. As part of a strategic partnership announced on March 27, Optimum has now joined the BlockApps Partner Network — a group of technology and service providers and blockchain experts cooperating on application development and integrations for STRATO.

Strained times

In their announcement, BlockApps and Optimum allude to recent “intense pressure” on the global energy industry, triggered by a price war in the oil sector, strained supply chains and the economic shocks rippling through world markets during the COVID-19 pandemic:

“Verifiable, granular energy usage tracking is a mission-critical need for the energy industry and will be an essential part of any solution to improve management of future shocks in supply and demand.”

Optimum plans to implement BlockApps’ STRATO platform to develop and customize blockchain solutions that will address the needs and challenges of their clients in the oil and gas, manufacturing and construction sectors at a juncture of unprecedented challenges.

U.S. crude oil prices have now dropped to an 18-year low of below $20 a barrel. The sector faces a glut of supplies and insufficient storage for reserves due to collapsing global demand. A number of North American shale producers are already reported to be on the brink of bankruptcy.

Partnerships

In May 2019, BlockApps partnered with the agricultural division of pharmaceutical and life science giant Bayer AG — which acquired the agrochemical and agricultural corporation Monsanto in 2018 — to cooperate on a series of joint blockchain initiatives.

BlockApps’ connections include integrations with major cloud providers Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud Platform and the numerous blockchain start-ups, research groups, Fortune 500 firms and banks — among them JPMorgan and Cisco — of the EEA.