Energy Web introduces public distributed computing toolkit

The Energy Web Worker Node toolkit is aimed to enable businesses to launch distributed computing applications such as 24/7 renewable energy matching and distributed energy resource integration.

With the toolkit, businesses should be able to construct distributed computing networks that can execute sensitive business operations utilising data from multiple external sources while preserving the privacy and integrity of that data.

The worker node concept was developed to solve the challenge in digital applications such as 24/7 renewables tracking of delivering publicly verifiable results, without for example double counting of the renewables and without revealing commercially sensitive data such as on generation and demand.

This latter is particularly notable in the energy sector with for example the granularity of data and number of distributed energy resources as participants in the procurement of flexibility services.

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Energy Web reports that the Worker Node toolkit solves these challenges by enabling enterprises to configure, launch, and maintain distributed computing networks that ingest data from external sources, execute custom workflows based on business logic and vote on results in order to establish consensus without revealing or modifying the underlying data.

With concepts and components from blockchain technology, the worker nodes provide stakeholders with cryptographic proof that mutually agreed rules and processes are followed correctly, ensure computational outputs from business processes are correct and preserve the privacy and integrity of the data for auditing purposes.

Jesse Morris, CEO of Energy Web, says that worker nodes are the single most powerful Web3 technology for enterprise that he has encountered to date and they are in production supporting several of the Energy Web solutions.

“For a low carbon energy system to run, companies need to be able to exchange and perform computations on data from millions and eventually billions of people, businesses and clean energy assets. Using a decentralised network of nodes to do useful work produces better outcomes than giving all that data and responsibility to a single entity.”

Energy Web has made the Worker Node toolkit available on Github containing both a smart contract and basic Worker Node template based on a 24/7 renewable energy matching application.

The initial release includes business logic for 24/7 matching, enables users to authorise the issuance of certificates and allows them to set permissions for data input.

An ‘as-a-service’ version of the toolkit is currently under development as is the new Energy Web X public blockchain for governing and securing Worker Node networks, with both expected to be made publicly available later this year.