Innogy Innovation Hub, a subsidiary of Germany electric and gas utility RWE, has launched hundreds of charging stations all over Germany, connected to Ethereum’s public blockchain.

As Trustnodes explains, “By using a computer chip in the charging station, a smartphone app to communicate with the interface, and a blockchain to manage and record all of the payment and charging data, a fully automated, worldwide authentication, charging and billing solution with no middleman is created.”

The idea is for autonomous EVs equipped with blockchain technology (apparently, no existing models yet are) to automatically pay for charging without human intervention.

A blockchain is a distributed database that maintains records that cannot be altered retroactively, making them secure from tampering. Ethereum is an open-source blockchain-based distributed computing platform.

Source: Trustnodes