**7. Conclusion**

The article discusses the main possibilities of using blockchain technology in the energy sector and proposes a general scheme of blockchain networks for information support of the energy market (primarily, the electricity market). One of the main functions of the blockchain is to ensure the trust of market participants in each other, due to the clear recording of all actions, the security of information and the transparency for participants of transactions [38]. Market actors have a high degree of autonomy in purchases and sales. The technology provides services for the preparation and issuance of invoices, as well as the organization of settlements for the entire transaction. It ensures the economic and information security of the participants in the transaction, as well as the efficiency of its implementation. Weaknesses and risks, associated with the use of blockchain in the economy, are analyzed and ways to overcome them are discussed.

Like any technology, blockchain is constantly evolving. Further research can be carried out in several directions [12].

Among the algorithms included in the blockchain, the consensus protocol, which is used to coordinate operations between individual nodes in distributed systems, is in particular need of further development. This is a key technology in the blockchain, which should be in line with the requirements of reliability (tolerance to failures and malicious attacks) and efficiency (high speed of convergence, that is, the speed at which the system reaches consistency or "steady state" [39]). The biggest challenge in implementing consensus agreements is to ensure a balance between safety and efficiency; currently, the speed of consensus algorithms (when organizing complex transactions) needs to be improved.

The underperformance of blockchain networks, in course of growing, is another serious problem. One solution is to use increasingly modern high-performance computers. However, an even more significant factor is the use of special intelligent software tools. According to the OpenAl survey, due to introducing and sequential training of artificial intelligence systems, the real computing power of computer networks has been growing exponentially since 2012, and the data processing speed has doubled every 3.5 months (much faster compared to Moore's law for processors,

#### *Perspective Chapter: Blockchain Technology in the Field of Energetics – Organization of Effective... DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.111445*

according to where the speed of computing doubles every 18 months). A convenient tool that goes well with blockchain technology is the intelligent the blockchain technology is an intelligent self-learning network agent—an avatar [7, 17], which automatically, during periods of low network congestion, processes data from the blockchain and generates proposals for concluding transactions.

Also, to improve performance, work is underway to improve network protocols, specially "sharpened" for the blockchain architecture.

The third problem, the optimal solution of which should be obtained in the course of further development of the technology, is to ensure the dynamic structural flexibility of blockchain networks. Three main models are currently in use: public, corporate, and private networks. The public chain is open to all users, the corporate chain serves a specific alliance of users, and the private chain is used by only one legal entity. Different blockchain products are being developed for the different models. At the same time, there is a great need to provide support both inter-network interaction and changing the model of a particular network: its decentralization in the transition to a public model, or centralization in the opposite case.

Business interactions between different organizations (i.e. interactions between different chains) can be a big problem. Accordingly, "cross-chain technologies" are currently being developed to solve this problem, and it is one of the main directions of blockchain development nowadays. The collected experience shows that, apparently, it is impossible to solve the problem without elements of centralization in the issue of harmonizing protocols between blockchains. Either generally recognized (on state or corporate level) standards of blockchain input/output interfaces are needed, or universal state-supported networks should be designed to provide a friendly information environment for interaction between separate blockchains.

An example is the HKTFP network, maintained by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. The advantage of the model is that the public platform allows to objectively resolve information conflicts between blockchains, and also supports both a simple user registration and a system of basic business scenarios. It is important that such an environment helps to solve the above-mentioned problem of interaction blockchains with fiscal and other central authorities.

Finally, the blockchain management mechanism should be improved; there are all prerequisites for this. The blockchain contains the necessary logic to automate the voting process (concerning updating network rules, changing protocols, distributing quotas, determining the operator of the blockchain supernode, etc.). The standard model is the "chain voting", but its details vary considerably across networks, and this, again, makes difficult the inter-networking coordination. Significant work remains to be done to develop a detailed and most effective standard.

In the development of technologies for efficient and reliable data storage, the quantum model can become the main competitor of the blockchain technology. However, its future is largely connected with the success of the widespread introduction of quantum computing tools. With the existing models of computer devices, the blockchain is still out of competition, so we can expect new successes in the development of this technology.
