Review green consumption projects:

 

Cardano #ADA 

Cardano was developed by the co-founder of Ethereum, Charles Hoskinson, and was tested by academics and scientists as the world’s first peer-reviewed blockchain. It functions mainly as a digital currency but can also be used for digital contracts, DApps, and other purposes. Compared to Bitcoin’s 7 transactions a second, Cardano can achieve 1000 per second.

How it works

Cardano is inherently more energy efficient than Bitcoin as it uses a ‘Proof of Stake’ consensus mechanism where those participating in the currency buy tokens to join the network. This helps save a staggering amount of energy, with the founder of Cardano claiming that the cryptocurrency network consumes only 6 GWh of power.

Cardano is similar in some ways to Ethereum, but without a lot of the bloat associated with the latter token. This enables Cardano to scale up to meet increased demands for the cryptocurrency, without compromising on speed or efficiency.

Stellar (XLM) 

The Stellar network was released in 2014 (forking off from Ripple) with the goal of bridging the gap between traditional financial institutions and digital currencies. Stellar doesn’t charge institutions or individuals for using the network and is increasingly seen as a serious alternative to PayPal as it enables faster, easier, and more cost-effective cross-asset and cross-border transactions.

Stellar is operated by the Stellar Development Foundation, a non-profit organization. It got its start with funding from Stripe (the payments startup), along with donations from BlackRock, Google, and FastForward. Tax-deductible public donations fund the network’s operating costs and the hard market cap for Lumens and removal of an inflation standard demonstrates that the SDF is looking to maintain a network that enables easy, accessible, low-cost cross-border payments rather than to make a quick buck with massive gains in the price of Lumen.

The network has also attracted serious engagement from IBM and Deloitte, as well as banking institutions in Nigeria, the Philippines, India, France, the South Pacific, and most recently the Ukraine. This brings to life the SDF’s vision to “unlock the world’s economic potential by making money more fluid, markets more open, and people more empowered.” Stellar was the first distributed technology ledger to receive certification as Shariah compliant.

How it works

Through the Stellar network, you can exchange US Dollars, Bitcoin, Pesos, Yen, and pretty much any currency traditional or crypto. The network’s token, Lumens, are used to facilitate these trades on the blockchain-based distributed ledger at a fraction of a cent and with great efficiency (which also translates to a lower carbon footprint). The network also allows individuals and institutions to create tokens for use on the network, which has inspired some to use the network for sustainability initiatives such as investing in renewable energy.

The key distinguishing feature of the Stellar network is its consensus protocol. This SCP is open-source and relies on authentication of transactions occurring through a set of trustworthy nodes rather than running through the whole network as a proof-of-work or even proof-of-stake algorithm. The cycle for authentication is thus much shorter and faster, keeping costs low and energy use to a minimum. The algorithm behind this is known as a federated byzantine agreement and is an energy-efficient alternative to the Bitcoin style traditional mining network.

Stellar’s token, Lumens (XLM), can be bought and sold on most exchanges, including Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Bittrex, Bitfinex, Upbit and Huobi.

Nano (NANO) 

Nano is free, fast, and uses considerably less energy than Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies. It has been around since the end of 2015 and has a relatively small carbon footprint even now. It is also scalable and lightweight as it doesn’t rely on mining.

How it works

Nano uses block lattice technology, which is energy efficient. Digiconomist estimates that compared to 950 kWh for each Bitcoin transaction, Nano uses just 0.112 Wh. It is still reliant on a Proof of Work mechanism, but the block lattice goes beyond blockchain to create an account-chain for each user on the network. The Nano platform uses a system called Open Representative Voting (ORV), where account holders vote for their chosen representative, who then work to securely confirm blocks of transactions.

On the Nano platform, user accounts can be updated asynchronously, rather than needing to involve an entire linear blockchain as is the case with Bitcoin and others. Instead of competition and delays, then, Nano involves just the sender and receiver account-chains and can handle as many as 125 transactions per second.

Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR) 

Hedera Hashgraph passed the number of Ethereum (ETH) transactions on May 6th, 2021, making it one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency networks. In theory, Hedera Hashgraph could process more than 100,000 TPS, which would allow it to easily rival Visa and other mainstream payment systems. Thankfully, this cryptocurrency (HBAR) is a proof-of-stake token, meaning it uses far less energy than proof-of-work tokens like Bitcoin.

HBAR has a current supply of around 8 billion hbars and a fixed supply of 50 billion hbars. It is a decentralized public network used for in-app payments, micropayments, and transaction fees, as well as for network protection. Developers can use Hedera to build secure applications with near real-time consensus. This is because instead of being a block ‘chain’, Hedera is more of a graph. In fact, it’s based on technology called a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) which means that the speed of transaction verifications increases as more transactions are added to the network.

The list of owners and the governing council of Hedera is impressive, including Avery Dennison, Boeing, Deutsche Telekom, DLA Piper, FIS (WorldPay), Google, IBM, LG Electronics, Magalu, Nomura, Swirlds, Tata Communications, University College London (UCL), Wipro, and Zain Group.

Hedera Hashgraph consists of four main services, including HBAR, the cryptocurrency that allows for low-fee, highly customizable transactions. The other services include smart contracts, file service, and consensus service.

How it works

Hedera Hashgraph works through a system called asynchronous byzantine fault tolerance (aBFT). This allows for high-level security even if there are malicious actors on the network. It is faster than Bitcoin or Ethereum because transactions are processed in parallel, rather than having to go through the whole blockchain in a serial manner.

The network reaches consensus through ‘gossip,’ with nodes on the Hashgraph talking to each other and comparing notes on the network’s transactions, instead of mining. Select transactions are deemed ‘famous’ by the nodes because they are communicated early in the gossip process and are then verified by multiple nodes across the network.

Hedera Hashgraph plans for more upgrades to the network in the second half of 2021, including introducing sharding. This will split the network into multiple shards to enable an increase in transactions.

One of the cool things about Hedera Hashgraph is that it is already being used to facilitate sustainability projects. This includes through Power Transition, a software system backed by Hedera Hashgraph. This highly scalable digital energy platform allows people and companies to control energy use from micro grids to national grids. It can help to reduce costs and make the move to a zero-carbon economy by dramatically improving communication between players in networks of any size, making for greater energy efficiency.

Power Transition estimates that the Hedera Hashgraph platform is 250,000 times more energy efficient than Bitcoin, using just 0.001 kilowatt hours per transaction, compared to 250 kWh for Bitcoin (Digiconomist puts it at 950 kWh), 55 kWh for Ethereum, and 0.003 for Visa.

 

Elrond (EGLD) 

 

Elrond is a blockchain which was launched in 2018 and, in three years, has accrued a large number of investors. Apart from possessing incredible scalability capacity, Elrond has one of the most environment-friendly networks in the industry.

Key Points

• Elrond can process 15,000 transactions per second while maintaining low electricity usage
• Proof-of-Work blockchains such as Bitcoin require massive computational power, which leads to energy inefficiency
• Elrond solves the problem of excessive electricity consumption by utilizing the Secure Proof-of-Stake protocol, which ensures the security of the network without negatively impacting sustainability
• For processing the same amount of transactions, Elrond is 6,24 million times more efficient than Bitcoin
• You can always accept EGLD payments via API, plugins or you can explore EGLD donations.

Proof-of-Work Technology

Elrond’s blockchain is supported by a Proof-of-Stake protocol which allows it to consume much less electricity to power the ecosystem compared to the currencies that employ the Proof-of-Work protocol. The latter implies utilizing mining which requires massive levels of computational power to process transactions and maintain the security of each network.

To keep up with the rising difficulty of staying competitive on Proof-of-Work platforms, miners are constantly searching for hardware that can deliver better performance than the rest of the solutions on the market. Yet, every new mining equipment tends to entail a rather disproportionate negative impact on the environment due to needing more electricity to function properly. As a result, Proof-of-Work protocols partially lead to a race among miners to generate as many electricity inefficiencies as possible.

Elrond’s Approach

Elrond’s Secure Proof of Stake eradicates the need for mining and provides an alternative way to ensure the stability of its blockchain. Unlike in the case of the Proof-of-Work protocol, members of the Elrond network do not engage in mining to receive new coins. Instead, they use tokens which are already in supply to generate even more.

All transactions on the Elrond blockchain get registered with the help of validators, users that stake their eGold to ensure smooth operation of the network and receive rewards in return. According to some estimates, because of the implementation of its ingenious Proof-of-Stake model, Elrond is 6,24 million times more efficient than Bitcoin in terms of energy consumption. This makes eGold a currency which is absolutely green and environment-friendly.

Sharding

Still, the question remains: how can Elrond ensure scalability without relying on excessive amounts of computational power and consuming terawatts of electricity?

Elrond’s scalability is made possible thanks to Sharding, a technological solution which divides a blockchain network into several parts called shards. Elrond espouses Adaptive State Sharding which lets it adjust the network and maintain fast processing of transactions depending on the current requirements. Together, Sharding and the Secure Proof-of-Stake protocol allowed Elrond to achieve the target of 15,000 transactions per second which is mind-blowing compared to Bitcoin, which can process only seven.

Furthermore, processing a transaction on the Elrond network, when operating at maximum capacity, only requires 88 mili-Wh, which is 6,24 MILLION times more efficient than Bitcoin’s 550kWh per transaction.

Conclusion

Elrond is a relatively new blockchain that, nevertheless, has made impressive progress and has its own niche in the crypto industry. One of the key features of the Elrond network is its environmental sustainability which is ensured through its Secure Proof-of-Stake protocol. Essentially, Elrond network can deliver amazing scalability while consuming a minuscule amount of electricity compared to blockchains such as Bitcoin.

We at NOWPayments care about sustainability and believe that crypto can be very environmentally friendly.  We recommend our environmentally-conscious partners to use “green” cryptocurrencies, such as Elrond eGold and various others, whenever possible!

 

 

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.