The problem Hercules solves

Electric power consumption analysis and billing in today’s world is quite ineffective. Billing is done solely on the basis of electric meter readings, which could be either faulty or tampered with, thereby resulting in incorrect bill amounts for users. There is also a lack of transparency in the bill calculation process, which became evident in recent times when multitudes across the country received exorbitantly high bills. Here's where Hercules comes into the picture. Along with providing a Home-Automation system, Hercules ensures transparency in the Electricity consumption analysis and billing process. The Hercules dApp enables users to control their electonic appliances with great convenience The units consumed are stored on the blockchain and cannot be tampered with. Real-time monitoring of electricity consumption and due amount helps the user to optimize their power usage and prevent wastage. The bill payments can then be done from the dApp directly to the Electricity Board in crypto, ensuring credible payments and avoiding the need for intermediaries, also reducing transaction charges in the process.

Challenges we ran into

Even though our project idea was a very ambitious one, the very limited hardware we had at hand inhibited us from showcasing it in full glory. But we were able to build a working model with LEDs to demonstrate all the features of Hercules. Using React and Web3 to build the front-end was also a bit of a herculean task for us as none of us were actually specialized front-end developers.