Climate change requires transformation of energy systems to integrate distributed renew- able resources into markets designed for centralized production. Blockchain technology offers decentralized coordination mechanisms through immutable transaction records, au- tomated smart contract execution, and transparent certificate tracking, yet faces critical barriers preventing widespread deployment: scalability limitations, platform fragmenta- tion, regulatory uncertainty, and unclear understanding of how decentralized communities actually coordinate at scale. This thesis investigates blockchain-oriented software engi- neering for sustainable energy systems through four interconnected research questions. First, empirical analysis of 10 Ethereum repositories (129,884 commits, 40,550 issues, 316,647 comments spanning 2014–2023) reveals that decentralized communities exhibit spontaneous coordination capabilities despite extreme contribution concentration (top 1% account for 86% of activity) and knowledge silos, with 31.8% of developer discus- sions addressing sustainability concerns. Second, multi-source discourse analysis across Reddit (14,156 posts), industry publications (477 CoinDesk articles), academic literature (28 papers), and developer repositories (58 GitHub projects) quantifies blockchain’s cli- mate potential through SDG mapping while identifying a maturity gradient from public absence to limited deployment. Third, validated implementations demonstrate economic viability through strategic platform selection: IOTA enables $3.50 annual per-user costs for 15-minute smart meter updates, while Layer 2 deployment achieves 99% cost reduction versus Ethereum Layer 1. Privacy-preserving HTLC blind auctions prevent strategic ma- nipulation, and manipulation-resistant block-number-based timing mechanisms enable de- terministic deadline enforcement. Fourth, interoperability protocol design establishes the- oretical minimum complexity (two on-chain transactions) with Byzantine fault tolerance, validated across five blockchain platforms. Key contributions include: empirical founda- tions for decentralized coordination dynamics, multi-scale climate potential assessment identifying deployment barriers, energy trading architectures with validated deployment costs, manipulation-resistant temporal coordination mechanisms, and general-purpose in- teroperability frameworks. Collectively, these demonstrate that blockchain energy systems have transitioned from theoretical possibility to technically feasible infrastructure, estab- lishing readiness for pilot deployment while identifying remaining challenges in regulatory frameworks, hybrid infrastructure integration, and real-world validation.
Blockchain Oriented Software Engineering for Smart Energy Trading and Decentralized Market
VACCARGIU, MATTEO
2026-06-23
Abstract
Climate change requires transformation of energy systems to integrate distributed renew- able resources into markets designed for centralized production. Blockchain technology offers decentralized coordination mechanisms through immutable transaction records, au- tomated smart contract execution, and transparent certificate tracking, yet faces critical barriers preventing widespread deployment: scalability limitations, platform fragmenta- tion, regulatory uncertainty, and unclear understanding of how decentralized communities actually coordinate at scale. This thesis investigates blockchain-oriented software engi- neering for sustainable energy systems through four interconnected research questions. First, empirical analysis of 10 Ethereum repositories (129,884 commits, 40,550 issues, 316,647 comments spanning 2014–2023) reveals that decentralized communities exhibit spontaneous coordination capabilities despite extreme contribution concentration (top 1% account for 86% of activity) and knowledge silos, with 31.8% of developer discus- sions addressing sustainability concerns. Second, multi-source discourse analysis across Reddit (14,156 posts), industry publications (477 CoinDesk articles), academic literature (28 papers), and developer repositories (58 GitHub projects) quantifies blockchain’s cli- mate potential through SDG mapping while identifying a maturity gradient from public absence to limited deployment. Third, validated implementations demonstrate economic viability through strategic platform selection: IOTA enables $3.50 annual per-user costs for 15-minute smart meter updates, while Layer 2 deployment achieves 99% cost reduction versus Ethereum Layer 1. Privacy-preserving HTLC blind auctions prevent strategic ma- nipulation, and manipulation-resistant block-number-based timing mechanisms enable de- terministic deadline enforcement. Fourth, interoperability protocol design establishes the- oretical minimum complexity (two on-chain transactions) with Byzantine fault tolerance, validated across five blockchain platforms. Key contributions include: empirical founda- tions for decentralized coordination dynamics, multi-scale climate potential assessment identifying deployment barriers, energy trading architectures with validated deployment costs, manipulation-resistant temporal coordination mechanisms, and general-purpose in- teroperability frameworks. Collectively, these demonstrate that blockchain energy systems have transitioned from theoretical possibility to technically feasible infrastructure, estab- lishing readiness for pilot deployment while identifying remaining challenges in regulatory frameworks, hybrid infrastructure integration, and real-world validation.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
