Retail monolith Walmart has received a patent in the US, for ‘managing demand on an electrical grid using a publicly distributed transactions ledger.’ It outlines a system in which someone can purchase or sell energy, with the ledger checking that the energy is available and then recording the transaction. It seems that efficiency is the main concern for Walmart, which notes in the filing that “currently, energy providers deliver energy to locations that inefficiently use the energy, which leads to increased energy costs for consumers. The increased costs result from various appliances and devices that consumer energy at higher levels than the appliance or device may actually need to function or perform certain tasks. Smart appliances and devices are now…