Category: Cardano

Original post: SHIFT Stake Pool

Spoiler: Because it is a positive impact #blockchain.

Among all the blockchains out there, Cardano has the ingredients to grow sustainably and at the same time to make the world a better place. Among the many reasons we think Cardano brings more value than older #blockchains is the growing Cardano ecosystem.

The ecosystem alone, plus the easy ability to stake your $ADA and obtain higher interests than from your bank today would perhaps be enough for most. Its utility also goes far beyond what can be done with a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin.

However, the following three reasons are important ones for us at SHIFT Pool:

1. A strong scientific foundation and track record.
   • Over 100 peer-reviewed research publications show the effort and expertise that have gone into developing this blockchain. No other blockchain has the same footing and academic rigour applied to it.
   • As researchers ourself, we appreciate the importance of this review process and the time it takes. We will continue to use the scientific process to build upon.
2. Low energy consumption of the Cardano Proof of Stake protocol, which uses 10,000x less electricity than the best known blockchain Bitcoin.
   • The consumption per transaction and overall has been compared in our recent calculations we did as a pool here.
   • Bitcoin or other Proof of Work blockchains like Ethereum (1.0) electricity consumption is not sustainable in a world where most energy is still generated from fossil fuels.
   • The world must zero out its emissions as soon as possible (see IPCC AR6 report summary), which means new technologies such as blockchains must be part of the solution.
3. A decentralised community with thousands of people on a mission to do good.
   • We are a member of Climate Neutral Cardano. A Group of Stake Pool Operators that is on a mission to make Cardano a climate positive blockchain and stop global warming. We are one of many thousands of groups spending thousands of $ADA and hours with the community, on projects that have a positive impact on our society and planet as a whole.
   • Cardano is not just its cryptocurrency ($ADA), but its mission as a whole is also to bring prosperity and new possibilities to billions of people in the world that are currently unbanked. Something we wholeheartedly stand behind.

None of the above can be found with Bitcoin and only part of these are addressed by other #blockchains.

Cardano is the blockchain we believe in and have invested our time and money in. As a Stake Pool we maintain the network for all of us and we are proud to do so with a positive impact.

Please get in touch if you have any questions about Cardano or our Stake Pool. If you already have some $ADA, we would very much appreciate if you stake with SHIFT and become a #ClimateFighter.

Staking with SHIFT pays for you and Mother Earth.

Thank you.

Your SHIFT team.

Original post: https://stakeshift.team/2022/01/04/why-cardano/

Original post: CO2 Pool

It has long been known that the Ethereum Blockchain consumes much more energy than the Cardano Blockchain with its Proof of Stake concept. The total energy demand of the Ethereum Blockchain from the mining process is variable and rose sharply in 2021, currently estimated at around 78.76 TWh/yr. This is roughly equivalent to Chile’s electricity consumption, with a population of around 19 million.

In contrast, the energy demand of the Cardano Blockchain from the operation of the Stakepools can be estimated at around 10.5 GWh/yr for 2021 (see here), which is around 7,800 times lower.

But what about individual transactions on the various blockchains? For Ethereum, an energy demand of 179.5 kWh/tx is given, with currently around 1.2 million transactions per day.

The number of transactions on Cardano has risen sharply since the introduction of native tokens in 2021, and an average of around 30,000 transactions per day can be assumed for Cardano in recent months. At the moment, this would correspond to an energy demand of 0.91 kWh/tx – i.e. a value per transaction that is almost 200 times lower than that of Ethereum.

Since Cardano’s energy consumption does not depend on the number of transactions, but only on the number of stake pools, the specific energy demand decreases as the number of transactions increases. With full utilisation of the transactions possible with current network parameters (currently 7 tx/sec, see here), the number of annual transactions can increase to up to 220 million on the same level of infratructure. The specific power consumption per transaction on the Cardano blockchain would then be reduced to around 0.045 kWh/tx (=45 watts/tx), which would be almost 4,000 times lower than with Ethereum.

The environmental impact of such transactions in Ethereum and Cardano differs considerably. For comparison: a beech tree is able to sequester 1 tonne of CO2 from the atmosphere in an 80-year life span.

With a specific emission value of 0.407 kg CO2eq/kWh of electrical energy (as an average of US/EU emission values), a single transaction on the Ethereum network generates a CO2 emission of 73.1 kg CO2eq.

To offset this amount for (yearly) Ethereum transactions would require planting of 6 trees and to keep them over a period of at least 80 years, which means that you’ll need a total of 2.6 billion trees to offset all transactions (not considered a future increase of transactions, which would require even more offset). Or, in other words: 14 transactions on the Ethereum blockchain neutralise the CO2 sequestration capacity of a beech tree over its entire lifespan.

With Cardano, the situation is different: even at full network load, one transaction only has a specific emission contribution of 0.018 kg CO2eq/tx – almost 4,000 times lower than on Ethereum.

Currently, about 1/3 of all Cardano stakepools are already running on renewable energy – moreover, with the project of a CardanoForest with the goal of planting 1 million trees and tracking and verifying their offset via the Cardano Blockchain, a groundbreaking project has been launched that has the potential that all transactions in the Cardano network can be processed in a climate-neutral way in the future.

More than 340,000 trees have already been donated, and the number continues to grow with each passing day. With 1 Ada donation, one tree can be planted and tracked on Cardano blockchain. With actual 900,000 staked Cardano Wallets, the goal of 1 million trees can well be reached in short time.

Stefan Rehfus, CO2POOL, October 2021

Original post: https://co2pool.com/ethereum/