As more companies transition to digitisation, the risk of cyberattack grows. The founder of energy commodity trading company Powerledger argues businesses can better protect themselves through embracing blockchain.
In this episode of Futurepreneur, Powerledger co-founder and chairman Dr Jemma Green joins business reporter Dominic Powell to explore how to manage cybersecurity risks.
Powerledger was created in 2016 to be the “missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle” in the renewable energy transition as it allows renewables to be scaled without boosting the cost of electricity. “We saw that the pushback from the incumbent energy sector against renewable energy was because it was pushing up an energy prices,” Dr Ledger said.
This year Powerledger moved to a Solana-based blockchain for recording electricity transactions. This means power token holders can now use their tokens in exchange for maintaining a node on Powerledger’s blockchain and be paid for doing so.
Dr Green said this model allows for “a great sense of ownership around the company … we’re able to steer it in the direction of the vision of the company, which is clean energy that works for everyone on the planet.” She argues Solana pushed the company to drive the energy transition “without as much destruction of value.”
One of the byproducts of founding Powerledger has been repeated instances of identity theft, “people will set up fake accounts pretending to be me … we’re constantly logging requests to shut down fake accounts where people have created complete replicas and contacting people in my life, like pretending to be me,” she said.
Dr Green said her company uses blockchain to better protect itself from cyberattack: “Bitcoin has never been hacked despite it being worth $1.5 trillion, and it’s open to the public. I think it speaks to the inherent security of blockchain technology,” she said.
She argues companies and everyday people cannot overstate the importance of implementing caution when using public wi-fi, installing antivirus software, and the need to regularly change passwords as mechanisms to prevent cyberattack.