Blockchain technology (BCT) enables the automated execution of smart contracts in peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading. BCT-based P2P platforms allow the sharing, exchange and trade of energy among consumers or prosumers as peers, fostering the decarbonization, decentralization and digitalization of the energy industry. On the other hand, BCT-based P2P energy trading relies on the collection, storage and processing of a large amount of user data, posing interdisciplinary challenges, including user anonymity, privacy, the governance of BCT systems and the role of energy market players. First, this paper seeks to review the state of the art of European data protection law and regulations by focusing on BCT compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of 2018. Second, it explores both the potentials and the challenges of BCT-based P2P energy trading from a legal–economic perspective. To do so, the paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach which intertwines both law and economics, by reviewing the recent literature on BCT and P2P energy trading. Findings have revealed that the deployment of BCT-based P2P energy trading is still in its pilot stage because of technology immaturity, data protection uncertainty, incomplete disintermediation and the lack of both user awareness and collaboration among market players. Drawing on the review, the paper also proposes a selection of solutions to foster the implementation of BCT-based P2P energy trading.

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This essay investigates the ways in which Barbara Hammer’s film Nitrate Kisses (1992) traces stories about homosexuality throughout the twentieth century. Inspired both by the concept of “vertical cinema,” as theorized by Maya Deren, and by the historical-philosophical reflections of Michel Foucault and Walter Benjamin, Hammer realizes a montage process in Nitrate Kisses that resurrects a forgotten historical memory through the juxtaposition of archival materials and original images. It is a memory that is reappropriated through the film as an experiential, tactile, and emotional moment.

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