Jônatas Augusto Manzolli, researcher from INESC Coimbra, won the 2nd place in the hackathon Building the Future with the project entitled BlockCharging, together with other four team members (Inês Moreira, Jamilson Junior e Mauro Pungo - Instituto Superior Técnico de Lisboa - and Irvylle Raimunda Mourão Cavalcante - University of Coimbra).

This initiative, organized by Microsoft, Galp, GoWithFlow e TAIKAI, had more than 100 participants from all over the world. The best projects were selected based on their innovation potential, development during the event and impact of the final pitch.

In this project the researchers developed a marketplace based on blockchain, where companies and other public and private institutions that produce off-grid renewable energy can sell their excess. This project takes advantage of this energy excess to charge electric vehicles (EVs) at a more competitive price than those offered by the Utility. The blockchain framework is used to perform the financial transaction, integrating the energy provider to the electric vehicle owner.