Energy consumption is one of cryptocurrency’s criticisms. Due to mining, lots of computer power is used. In Jan 2018, it’s reported that Bitcoin’s energy usage has grown to over 42TWh. Cryptocurrency’s high energy consumption is indeed a legitimate concern but that doesn’t mean it’s going to destroy our environment. In fact, a few eco-friendly crypto-startups have sprung up recently and they hope to make use of the blockchain technology to improve environmental conservation efforts.
Here are some of these eco-friendly coins to check out:
ECO Coin
Eco Coin aims to promote environmental conservation by using its coins as an incentive. Are you vegan? Are you using a green energy provider? Perhaps you’re riding your bike to work instead of driving your car? ECO Coin aims to promote these green lifestyle choices by rewarding sustainable actions with ECOs.
Through smart IOT integration linked to your mobile device, ECO Coin tracks and measures your green efforts. In its marketplace, you’ll get to buy ecological goods and services with the ECOs you’ve earned so you can keep up with your green lifestyle choices easily!
SolarCoin
Pretty similar to ECO coin, SolarCoin rewards investors with SolarCoin tokens for every megawatt of electricity powered through solar energy. Today, most of our energy comes from fossil fuels, a great contributor to the greenhouse effect. Solar energy is one of the cleanest alternative energy sources and it does not require any generation.
How does SolarCoin work? SolarCoin hopes to give solar energy producers an additional income stream. Producers can sell their power to end-users and also use their activity to earn SolarCoin tokens for each megawatt of electricity produced. This helps to subsidise the cost of solar energy generation and speed up the adoption of using solar power as an alternative energy source.
HydroMiner
Crypto mining consumes an extensive amount of energy and HydroMiner aims to target this concern directly. As a pioneer in green crypto mining, HydroMiner has two mining farms running in Europe and the Austrian Alps, and use only hydropower to fuel their hardware. Sale for its token, H3O has not started yet but HydroMiner has already gained the interest of large organisations such as Business Insider, Bloomberg and Forbes.
H3O token holders are just like traditional shareholders — they will benefit from profits made by HydroMiner. Additionally, investors will also enjoy unique voting rights which will influence business decisions.
Cryptoleaf
To promote green efforts among businesses, Cryptoleaf hopes to create a blockchain-based platform for businesses for developing green solutions. LEAF tokens are used to incentivise enterprises that use its network to build their eco-projects and they also function as a form of transaction currency. Through building their projects on Cryptoleaf’s platform, eco-enterprises can expect to cut their operating costs and transaction fees to as low as 0.1%.
Besides promoting green solutions within the business sphere, Cryptoleaf also has multiple green initiatives across the globe. The company owns several biogas plants which generate clean electricity, heat and fertiliser from organic waste.
Since mining consumes large amounts of computer power, high energy consumption is a legitimate concern. Nonetheless, green solutions are developed and cryptocurrency still has a place in a world where people are becoming more environmentally aware. The blockchain technology has great potential and when it’s appropriately leveraged, it can even bring about benefits for our environment.
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