Especially with a centralized authority being LO3. I don't get the point of using a blockchain in this case, who is confirming the transacations? What is the incentive for confirmation?

Also if LO3s customers are just buying from the grid, are they paying LO3 on top of what they pay their utility? If so what is the value added by LO3 at all?

Right. Because if LO3 is the one who is auditing and moving money around, why do we need a Blockchain at all? Can’t a database they admin do the same thing?

Well a block chain is inherently auditable isn't it ? I thought it was an open tech, not a closed system.

But is that something people really need? To be able to audit their electricity transactions via the blockchain? Someone is going to have to write a tool (this is well beyond the average person), and that tool could easily be flawed. The meters themselves also aren't easily auditable... so many points of failure why is a blockchain the thing that matters?

I thought the tooling was already there, you would "just" push your transaction on the network and let it be.

What tooling exists for me to aggregate my electricity costs against anonymous wallet hashes and see the unique amounts to each neighbor?

Disclaimer: never used BC. I meant BC and ETH are generic data structure, you put anything you want in it and retrieve later to create a new transaction.

Regardless of the actual coin, where's the tooling for the enduser to do this verification? They go to there computer and... what happens?

This has to be built by someone, and then that has to be trusted. I can't imagine many people wanting to do such a thing on any side...

The value is added to LO3's shareholders, not the users. This is a common theme with companies nowadays.

Not sure how charging a transaction fee makes it a scam. That's what every company that provides a market platform does.

While it's entirely possible that the blockchain serves no functional purpose in this case that couldn't be done equally well with a web server, it's also possible that they've structured the company so that some parts are done automatically, by a smart contract on the blockchain, resulting in the company having less control than it would otherwise have.

Scepticism is a good thing. Making serious allegations based solely on speculation is not.

The article even mentions that the utility provider ConEd in Brookyln offers green energy, so there's almost no point in LO3's services.

Not that I'm an expert in electrical grids, but I'd rather the actual grid coordinate a changeover to renewable sources, because these actors just sound like they're selling a scam that'll end with a class-action lawsuit someday.

But this company allows homeowners to sell their electricity in a competitive market instead of accepting the monopsony price of the electric system.