Mama Earth is growing old, its structure is changing, it is getting sicker by day. The cause of its sickness is chiefly human and his activities. Humans cannot do without expending energy. We continue to work so we can have money so we can expend more energy through the use of technology. Technology runs on power. Sadly, most power generated on the earth is destructive to the earth and the atmosphere. Bitcoin came along as the first widely adopted cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to improve security and transparency. But even in Bitcoin’s security was Earth’s insecurity- Bitcoin mining. 

Bitcoin’s Impact on the Environment 

Bitcoin mining started as an innocent and harmless competition between gaming hardware from gamers more than a decade ago. But the competition grew bitter as some miners saw that more powerful hardware will give them an edge over others. Additionally, the people who use the tech grew in number, they made more transactions which invariably requires more computational power. While miners compete for block rewards and transaction fees, mining farms appear, and mining pools are formed- adding salt to injure. Researchers began to research and concluded that the power consumed with Bitcoin operations in the world today is enough to serve an average-sized nation. This is in addition to other blockchains that require huge computational power to operate.

If Bitcoin Maximalists rise to fight for green energy to save the earth, don’t you think that will be hypocritical? Why not find a way for BTC to consume far less energy before you fight for Mama Earth? 

Cardano’s Ouroboros- The Leading Hero for Earth’s Sustainable Future

In this war are Blockchain heroes that are fighting earnestly to save mother Earth. They have begun in two phases: one is to make sure their Blockchain operations leave a green footprint and two, is to join forces in supporting the sustainability movement. Leading the force is Cardano. Its Consensus and anti-Sybil control mechanism is effective and not dependent on competition between nodes. It was designed specifically to consume far lesser energy than Bitcoin, as stated by a recent release by Cardano Foundation Team on Cardano Forum:

“By design, PoS blockchains require significantly lower computing power and therefore lower energy requirements than PoW blockchains. When the Ouroboros protocol was first introduced by researchers at IOHK in 2017, one of the key focuses was designing a consensus protocol that would offer similar security guarantees to PoW, but demand significantly less energy.”

Instead of competition and a show of computational strength, Cardano’s Ouroboros protocol “selects a slot leader to validate new blocks”. The slot leaders are chosen from the active stake pools in proportion to their stakes. At the end of the day, each stake pool on the Cardano blockchain receives rewards proportional to their stake. This is way efficient and effective compared to Bitcoin’s model where only the powerful are entitled to rewards thus resulting in to reward centralization.

Goguen- A tool for Blockchain Green Credential 

Cardano is not just pushing for a Green Earth in its Blockchain consensus and anti-Sybil mechanism, it, through its involvement in different movements, is actively fighting for a sustainable future for the earth. According to its release on Monday, 19th October, via Cardano Forum:

“… our ecosystem partners, IOHK, have recently announced their participation in a hackathon challenge alongside the United Nations, to explore how Marlowe financial contracts can advance U.N. sustainable development goals. The Cardano Foundation also advances these goals through our work with multiple nations in Africa, and through the exploration of industry partnerships.”

Goguen’s launch will allow the team to “encourage multiple projects that leverage Cardano’s blockchain technology for environmental protection—such as provenance and origin tracking of raw materials, carbon credit issuance, and more.”. The update will enable developers to build decentralized applications, tokenize, and create smart contracts.