An often overlooked aspect of Blockchain based Local Energy Markets (LEM) is the requirement for user anonymity. Energy consumption (and generation) data is highly personal, and it allows inferring a multitude of details about the user’s life. This not only includes information about the number of people present in a household, but also sleeping habits, appliances and electric vehicle possession, as well as media consumption (e.g. which movies are being watched).

While Blockchain technology is publicly perceived to provide a high level of privacy, the opposite is the case when no additional measures are implemented. By default, Blockchain users are represented by pseudonyms, from which the users identity cannot be inferred. However, repeated public exchange of information using these pseudonyms creates patterns that can easily be linked to real individuals. Thus, pseudonyms do not suffice to anonymize data. To amend this weakness, it is advised to use a new pseudonym for every transaction on the Blockchain. A solid approach in theory, this requires ensuring that the different pseudonyms created by one user cannot be interlinked.

Anonymisation is especially important in jurisdictions that grant individuals a “right to be forgotten”, meaning users can request all their personal data to be deleted from a service provider database. How this right can be protected, who service providers are, and who liablility for potential damages is determined are all unanswered questions regarding Blockchain technology. Designed for decentralization, it creates a situation in which data is stored permanently and immutably. The only possible way to comply with the right to be forgotten is thus to ensure that data stored on the Blockchain can not be associated with any individual.

Careful design and implementation of anonymisation techniques is hence a key concern in the BC2Energy project.

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