As far as the environment is concerned, is it true that mining and trading with cryptocurrency contribute to climate change?
As the world debates on how to battle climate change effectively, we've identified fossil fuels, industrial pollutants, and agriculture as significant culprits. However, the conversation has shifted to cryptocurrency in the past few years. Bitcoin, Ethereum, stellar mining, and more consume a lot of energy, and the most visible environmental impact is the electricity used in the mining process, which is how new digital money is created.
As user adoption of crypto grows, and mining efficiency declines, the quantity of energy needed by cryptocurrency mining is anticipated to rise too. Mining cryptocurrency is a competitive activity, and as crypto blockchains grow longer and the competition to obtain crypto rewards grows, the necessary computational power grows in unison.
However, Solana is a viable alternative to host several different blockchains that promote efficient production and a greener crypto sphere. The network is not just efficient when it comes to conducting transactions, but it is also greener than web browsing Google.
The Solana blockchain is designed to be a high-performance network. Because of these design choices, the network is extremely energy efficient. Here's what we know so far!
1. According to the report, the Solana Foundation calculated that a single Solana transaction uses 0.00051 kWh or 1,836 Joules of energy. The report listed a slew of energy-intensive activities that a single Google search is said to use roughly 1,080 Joules. In other words, two Google searches would use more energy than a single Solana transaction.
2. Solana transactions use 24 times less energy than charging a smartphone. It also uses less energy than turning on an LED light bulb for an hour, which uses roughly 36,000 Joules or working with a computer and monitor for an hour, which uses around 46,800 Joules.
3. What's even more fascinating is that the entire Solana network consumes only 3,186,000 kWh per year. It equals around the same amount of electricity used by 986 households in the United States.
4. Solana appears to be a more practical and energy-efficient alternative to Ethereum, which has been plagued by high gas expenses and a high electricity bill.
5. The Solana Foundation appears to be serious about achieving carbon neutrality. The organization has pledged to further reduce the SOL ecosystem's environmental impact.
However, Solana is not the only one that is putting enormous effort into going green. You can also check Chia, IOTA, Cardano, Nano, Solarcoin, and Bitgreen.