Blockchain is a technology that will change the future of society as profoundly as it did the internet.
In the media and public discussion, however, skepticism and resistance prevail at the moment. Blockchain is associated, among other things, with serious environmental impacts due to high electricity consumption.
This criticism is justified for the “Proof of Work” (PoW) concept of Bitcoin, Ethereum and crypto projects based on them. The electricity consumption to generate the blocks in Bitcoin alone is equivalent to the electricity consumption of Belgium or the Netherlands. This is indeed an unsustainable state of affairs in the face of increasing climate change, but there are alternatives.
The modern “Proof of Stake” (PoS) concept of the Cardano blockchain is more energy-efficient than the Bitcoin protocol.
This is equivalent to the power requirements of a few thousand inhabitants – and this for a technology that has the potential to replace the traditional, energy-intensive financial system with ATMs, money transports, money printers, federal banks, bank branches, etc.
The energy requirements of blockchain technology can be made completely climate-neutral. For this reason, the “Climate Neutral Cardano” (CNC) was founded for the Cardano Blockchain (https://www.adafolio.com/portfolio/350e6778-82a4-11eb-a0f8-0242ac120002).
The Cardano stakepools participating in the alliance have committed to:
- Operate their server infrastructure in a climate-neutral way and rely on 100% renewable energy from wind, water, sun or biomass.
- Use parts of their pool operator fees to donate to climate protection activities or compensation measures. This is used, for example, to plant trees for sustainable reforestation or to finance other offset measures.
The members of CNC agree that blockchain technology, as a modern technology of the future, must also be modern and sustainable in ecological terms.
So far, there are only a few pool members of the alliance, but there is great potential to really develop Cardano into the most significant and most climate-neutral blockchain.
Already one third of the pools surveyed in April 2021 rely on renewable energies. And more than 75% consider the goal of a climate-neutral blockchain to be important or very important. 90% of the pool operators surveyed would convert their servers to use renewable energies to achieve this goal.
This makes it clear that making Cardano completely or largely climate neutral is a realistically achievable goal.
Since he Cardano blockchain can execute smart contracts, many projects now have the option to move from the energy-intensive Ethereum to the more efficient Cardano blockchain.
Cardano will thus take over a key unique selling point of Ethereum and develop it to a modernized form. With an additional climate neutrality, Cardano will finally become the blockchain technology of the future and gain acceptance. Stakepool operators can make a significant contribution to this by joining CNC’s goals.