For years, the use of energy by various crypto blockchains has been a source of contention. A research organization has now attempted to measure the precise variations in consumption by some of the most popular networks. The Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute (CCRI) is a research firm that focuses on crypto’s environmental impact. Their findings were published in the Energy Efficiency and Carbon Footprint of Proof-of-Stake Blockchain Protocols Report.
The paper compares the energy usage and carbon impact of six proof-of-stake crypto networks, including Avalanche (AVAX), Algorand (ALGO), Cardano (ADA), Polkadot (DOT), Tezos (XTZ), and Solana (SOL), to proof-of-work networks, such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).
Energy consumption of Crypto
According to the paper by Ulrich Gallersdörfer, Lena Klaaßen, and Christian Stoll of the Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute, Polkadot has the lowest overall electricity consumption and total carbon emissions per year among the six proof-of-stake blockchains analyzed. According to the analysis, Cardano uses the least amount of energy per node each year, and Solana uses the least amount of electricity every transaction. Ava Labs, which is affiliated with the Avalanche blockchain, one of the ones analyzed, commissioned the paper.
As per the analysis of the crypto’s, Bitcoin uses the same amount of energy as 8.5 million US households in a year, while Ethereum uses the same amount as 1.6 million US households. The Avalanche network, on the other hand, was discovered to utilize the same amount of energy as only 46 US houses.
The total value locked in financial apps on each platform is $18,454 per kilowatt-hour for Avalanche, $4,395 for Solana, and $19.18 for Polkadot, according to the research, which used DeFiLlama data from February 1.
Elon Musk, Bank of America Corp. academics, and others have expressed alarm about Bitcoin’s energy use, and it’s a concern even for countries that host miners. According to the CCRI research, Proof of Stake networks require less than 0.001% of the Bitcoin network.
Multiple parameters were examined by the CCRI research approach, including network size, hardware configuration, and network architecture. Based on the total emissions computed for these six networks, it’s possible to conclude that proof-of-stake-based blockchain protocols consume an amount of energy that doesn’t require a debate over their environmental footprints.
Conclusion
It’s safe to say that proof-of-stake is the way to go forward. In a recent podcast with UpOnly, Vitalik Buterin, founder of Ethereum, said that almost every major crypto project has a plan to transition over towards a proof-of-stake system of consensus. Environmentalists have long been accusing the crypto community of immense energy consumption, but now it seems we can put that argument to rest.