Blockchain has been on everyone’s minds lately, and PGNiG has decided to catch up with the innovative trend. The Polish state-controlled oil and gas company has hired Billion and Microsoft to develop a way to employ the use of the technology in their systems.
We’ve begun the tests of our blockchain technology in three areas of the energy industry. Our next step will be to collaborate with PGNiG and Microsoft in order to analyse each of the project’s potential and justifiability of implementation. – states Jacek Figuła, Chief Commercial Officer at Billon.
If you’re not exactly familiar with what this whole blockchain thing is about, here’s a quick roundup: it’s a decentralized database system which keeps track of all transactions across a peer-to-peer network and hence also sometimes called a distributed ledger. What makes blockchain unique is the fact that transactions can be confirmed without the need for a central certifying authority. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are also based on a public blockchain, while Billon offers a proprietary private blockchain technology for use by businesses.
In the case of PGNiG, the partnership assumes that the blockchain solutions developed by Billon would enable the oil and gas provider to decrease the costs of customer service, fulfill the legal requirements of transferring data in an unchanged form, and strengthen cloud data storage security. If everything goes according to plan, PGNiG’s customer service platform will be able to store crucial information such as bills, invoices, terms of conditions, or client contracts.
PGNiG is the leading company in our industry, so we need to keep our tabs on innovative solutions. We want to recognize the current directions of blockchain technology development and be aware of how these innovative solutions can affect the improvement of our offer – states Łukasz Kroplewski, Vice President of PGNiG’s Management Board. You’ll have a chance to listen catch up with Kroplewski at Impact fintech’18, coming up this June, as he’ll join us in Cracow for the Transportation, Energy & Environment track.
The involvement of Billon isn’t accidental – the company prides itself in their development of a revolutionary instant payout system which bases on a distributed ledger. The payment system used in customer service and electromobility solutions could employ the use of Billon’s cryptocurrency, issued with permission of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority.
To find out more about Billon’s work, head to their website. We had the pleasure of hosting the company’s Chairman and Managing Director of Expansion, David Putts, at Impact fintech’17.
