France’s Electricity firm joins Blockchain Hedera Hashgraph governing council

Électricité de France S.A. (EDF), a top five global utility firm1 serving customers worldwide, has joined the Hedera Hashgraph Governing Council and will run a Hedera network node. As a recognized global leader in combating climate change, EDF has undertaken to produce increasingly low-carbon electricity and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The Hedera network’s computational efficiency as a proof-of-stake decentralized public network aligns with this goal and makes it the ideal platform on which to deploy energy use cases.  

EDF is a leader in helping customers worldwide leverage blockchain and distributed ledger technologies (DLTs). The company’s wholly-owned subsidiary Exaion, operates Blockchain-as-a-Service offerings that provide the computing and network infrastructure necessary to roll out projects faster, with high security. Exaion will run a Hedera network node in France, the first in the country. Exaion also runs a Tezos node, and participates in the Energy Web Foundation and Hyperledger Foundation.

“In the near future, distributed computing will support increasingly decentralized electrical systems, complex supply chains and exchanges of digital assets, energy certificates, GHG credits, and more. Multiple pieces of the distributed ledger technology ecosystem will form the puzzle pieces that make this vision a reality,” said Gilles Deleuze, Principal Researcher, Systems Risk Assessment, EDF R&D. 

Deleuze continued, “EDF’s Blockchain Task Force is assessing consortia and foundations developing distributed platforms with the greatest potential to help us achieve this vision. We believe in partnering with industry leaders like Hedera Hashgraph to explore innovative technologies and organizational modes, build value-creating ecosystems, develop use cases for the energy domain and EDF’s operations, and develop Exaion’s potential to deliver blockchain/DLT and high-performance computing services. The Hedera Token Service (HTS) is one innovation we look forward to leveraging, to deploy a carbon offset and credit system on Hedera, in line with our overarching mission. Additionally, we will be exploring other use cases that leverage the technological advantages of speed and security that Hedera brings.”

Lionel Chocron, Chief Product Officer at Hedera Hashgraph, said, “Today’s most forward-thinking organizations recognize that the maturation of distributed computing requires the use of multiple technologies and efforts to deliver on the services their customers want. EDF is a leading voice around the world in the use of DLT to deliver on the vision of a net zero energy future with electricity and innovative solutions and services that help save the planet and drive wellbeing and economic development. We welcome them to the Hedera Governing Council, and look forward to developing the numerous ways that the Hedera network can help them deliver on this vision.”

As the 19th Council member, the EDF Group joins a growing network of the world’s largest enterprises and organizations, including Avery Dennison, Boeing, Dentons, Deutsche Telekom, DLA Piper, eftpos, FIS (WorldPay), Google, IBM, LG Electronics, Magalu, Nomura, Standard Bank Group, Swirlds, Tata Communications, University College London (UCL), Wipro, and Zain Group.

Members of the Hedera Governing Council are responsible for running the initial nodes of the Hedera network, as well as guiding both strategy and software development, over a maximum of two consecutive three-year terms. This guarantees stability and is conducive to maintaining diversity and decentralization of the public network, with a governance model that eliminates the risk of forks, safeguards users, and preserves the integrity of the Hedera network.