Topic: Tying it all together (Read 947 times)
Any utility-like business that delivers a constant flow of products/services instead of discrete sales is a good use case for rapidly adjusted micropayments. I also wanted to show how in some cases where certain developing Bitcoin technologies are combined, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
+1 I like the idea
As a proponent of decentralised rentable power infrastructure, could you have it work in reverse?
Say I run a mining operation off my solar and wind power, and supplement off the grid, could I alternate between selling my power to the grid, or to Mining Bitcoin depending on the market demand at any given time.
Just taking the idea further, this would be great for road infrastructure, based on usage.
As a proponent of decentralised rentable power infrastructure, could you have it work in reverse?
Say I run a mining operation off my solar and wind power, and supplement off the grid, could I alternate between selling my power to the grid, or to Mining Bitcoin depending on the market demand at any given time.
Just taking the idea further, this would be great for road infrastructure, based on usage.
An electric company decides they want to use combine Bitcoin as a payment system with smart meter technology to enable real time billing.
To their existing smart meter they add lightweight Bitcoin node and wallet capability. The meter does not store a full copy of the blockchain but instead relies on UBC-aware nodes to get accurate balance information. Transaction signing is handled on the meter side by a dedicated chip that refuses to sign any transaction with outputs addresses other than its own change addresses or to an address derived from the extended public key stored in a SIM-like card provided by the electric company to each subscriber. That same card also contains a 256 bit random shared secret to encrypt communications between the meter and the electric company. Both the meter and the electric company are using hierarchical deterministic wallets. The meter uses BIP32 to calculate change and deposit addresses and the electric company uses the same protocol to create a different extended public key for each customer account.
Customers are reminded to add funds to their meter on a periodic basis, and the actual billing is handled on a per watt-hour basis using rapidly adjusted micropayments. Even with a very short billing interval transactions only need to hit the blockchain between once per week and once per month. The electric company likes this because they never need to deliver electricity without being assured of payment, and the customers like this because it avoids the downside traditionally associated with prepaid services - their ability to get a full refund for the unused portion of a prepayment is guaranteed by the blockchain and the Bitcoin protocol instead of the whims of the service provider.
To their existing smart meter they add lightweight Bitcoin node and wallet capability. The meter does not store a full copy of the blockchain but instead relies on UBC-aware nodes to get accurate balance information. Transaction signing is handled on the meter side by a dedicated chip that refuses to sign any transaction with outputs addresses other than its own change addresses or to an address derived from the extended public key stored in a SIM-like card provided by the electric company to each subscriber. That same card also contains a 256 bit random shared secret to encrypt communications between the meter and the electric company. Both the meter and the electric company are using hierarchical deterministic wallets. The meter uses BIP32 to calculate change and deposit addresses and the electric company uses the same protocol to create a different extended public key for each customer account.
Customers are reminded to add funds to their meter on a periodic basis, and the actual billing is handled on a per watt-hour basis using rapidly adjusted micropayments. Even with a very short billing interval transactions only need to hit the blockchain between once per week and once per month. The electric company likes this because they never need to deliver electricity without being assured of payment, and the customers like this because it avoids the downside traditionally associated with prepaid services - their ability to get a full refund for the unused portion of a prepayment is guaranteed by the blockchain and the Bitcoin protocol instead of the whims of the service provider.
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