Everyone in the crypto sector has heard the cliché that proof-of-work blockchains are destroying the Earth, while proof-of-stake blockchains keep it. However, the world is not that simple and the rules are not that clear either.
A Research Report from the Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute [CCRI] looked at six altcoins that use the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism to compare where they stood in terms of electricity consumption.
It turns out that the spectrum is indeed broad.
I sing the body electrically
CCRI’s report looked to Cardano, Polkadot, Solana, Tezos, Avalanche and Alogrand to assess their total electricity consumption in a year, and consequently their CO2 emissions per year.
Not surprisingly, different alts scored well in different areas. While Polkadot reportedly consumed the least electricity per year, Cardano consumed the least electricity per node. According to the study, Solana used the least electricity per transaction, while Polkadot was again the first with the lowest total CO2 emissions per year.
In its report, CCRI stated:
“An average American household uses about 10,600 kWh per year, and therefore the least electricity-using network, Polkadot, uses about 6.6 times the electricity and the most electricity-using network, Solana, about 200 times the electricity (US Energy Information Administration, 2021).”
While investors and traders may be tempted to look for an overall eco-friendly “winner,” this is a reductive approach. To even bring the six different altcoins to a comparable level, CCRI worked with a dizzying number of stats and conditions. These include the minimum hardware requirements of each blockchain, the electricity consumption of each node, the electricity consumption of the network and additional information such as transaction data.
All said and done, CCRI’s results are the researchers’ best estimates after considering a barrage of variables as opposed to stable data.
Source: CCRI report
Still, Polkadot wore his laurels with pride.
Polkadot has smallest carbon footprint, crypto research says: https://t.co/XmC8ieCmeS
— Polkadot (@Polkadot) February 3, 2022
One last point is that numbers aren’t everything. Other factors, such as the location of most nodes, energy differences between countries and even the efforts of the founding teams to offset their carbon footprints can make a huge difference in how such values are generated.
Do pandas dream of nature NFTs?
It’s hard to imagine people getting mad at a conservation organization, but that’s exactly what happened when WWF UK announced its “Tokens for Nature” NFT collection to raise awareness about endangered animals. While WWF UK assured supporters that its “environmentally friendly” NFTs were built on the Polygon blockchain, many firmly believed that no blockchain could ever do anything positive for the environment.
This post Report: Polkadot emits least carbon per year of these six alts
was published first on https://ambcrypto.com/report-polkadot-emits-the-least-carbon-per-year-out-of-these-six-alts/
