The Energy Web Foundation has launched its EW Chain blockchain, to somewhat muted response, after spending the past two years in development while much of the blockchain hype died out. Based on Ethereum, EW Chain will launch with 17 applications, migrated over from the test networks, and support from some pretty influential names, but the question remains whether it can go mass-market, or whether it will remain niche. We are still very optimistic about the potential for blockchain technologies in the utility sector – much more so than in the financial services world, where the vision of a decentralized platform has been thoroughly gutted, thanks to adopters creating islands. Instead of a new global currency, we have insurance firms and…