Polkadot is the greenest cryptocurrency on the market
The use of cryptocurrency Polkadot has the most sparing effect on the environment. This network has the lowest power consumption and carbon footprint.
Bloomberg writes about it, citing a study conducted by scientists from Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute (CCRI). They studied the impact of six cryptocurrency networks that operate under the Proof-of-Stake consensus (that is, remuneration is received for coin storage, not for calculations).
It turned out that Cardano uses the least amount of electricity per node (one network computer) – 199.45 kWh per year. And Solana has the least amount of electricity per transaction confirmation (0.166W).
At the same time, the total electricity consumption of the Polkadot blockchain was the lowest – 70.3 kWh per year. At the same time, the operation of the network annually leads to the emission of 33.36 tons of carbon dioxide – the lowest indicator among all the networks that have been studied.
At the moment, cryptocurrency analysts explain, the Polkadot blockchain is one of the brightest representatives of the next-generation blockchain. As it builds parachemes, it is one of the engines of web 3.0 development. It is also easily scalable, which makes it one of Ethereum’s main competitors, it is compatible with other blockchains, and it is actively used in the development of DeFi applications.
And the economic value of the Avalanche network proved to be the highest – for every kWh it consumes, $18,400 is blocked in financial applications. For Polkadot and Solana, the figure was $19.18 and $4,395, respectively.
Cryptocurrencies and the environment
The impact on the environment has become a real stumbling block between proponents and critics of cryptocurrencies. Most of the stones are flying in the direction of bitcoin, which operates on the Proof-of-Work model. That means that new coins are produced by mining, not by steaking.
However, a recent study by CoinShares found that the energy consumption of this process is quite low – it uses about 0.05% of the world’s total energy consumption. In terms of carbon emissions, the process is 50 times less than aviation.
At the same time, according to CCRI, PoS networks consume less than 0.001% of the energy required to operate the Bitcoin network. Therefore, other factors – decentralization, bandwidth, or functionality – should be given more consideration when evaluating them.
