PG&E, California's Largest Public Utility, Joins Blockchain Education Group

Among the six new companies added to the MouseBelt blockchain accelerator last week, one stands out from the standard fare of crypto exchanges and startups: California power provider PG&E.

The San Francisco-based utility company – which, by most measures, is the largest in the U.S. – said it is researching use cases for blockchain technology and looking for “collaboration opportunities” through the MouseBelt Blockchain Education Alliance.

“It is a good way to interact with other companies to see what they are doing and observe research around blockchain and to build relations,” Eban Hamdani, a senior product manager at PG&E, said in an interview.

PG&E is hoping to tap the accelerator network for talent specializing in blockchain technology, he added.

“We’ve explored two use cases,” Hamdani said, adding that PG&E has no immediate plans for a blockchain rollout.

The MouseBelt initiative, which was launched in October 2019, tries to link corporate blockchain projects with researchers, students and new protocols. 

Mastercard, Stellar, ING Bank, Rolls-Royce and the incubator arms of Binance and Ripple are among the companies that also belong to the association. In addition to PG&E, CoinGecko, OKCoin, ShapeShift, Band Protocol and Switzerland’s Crypto Valley Association are the latest to join.

Adam Leon, MouseBelt's vice president of partnerships, said it’s no surprise that even utility companies such as PG&E are interested in supporting blockchain education. 

“Through programs like ours, they can source highly skilled talent, identify opportunities for innovative research and support cutting-edge projects that will ultimately provide advanced solutions to their major internal pain points" Leon said.