Friday, May 20, 2022

Which Proof-Of-Stake coins are the most environmentally friendly?

    As the popularity of cryptocurrencies grew, so did the amount of energy needed to produce them. Especially in the case of the two largest ones: Bitcoin and Ethereum. This drew criticism from environmentalists who began to raise concerns about the impact of digital assets on the environment.

    However, Bitcoin and Ethereum are fairly old blockchains (by the standards of the crypto world) that run on a power-hungry proof-of-work consensus method. As part of this process, so-called miners “mine” bitcoins and thus consume energy. All this leads to massive emissions of carbon dioxide.

    And while many maximalists claim that bitcoin can push the world toward renewable energy (and they are partly right), the developers have already come up with a better solution. It is a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm. This technology is up to 99% more energy-efficient than PoW and guarantees high blockchain security. The difference between PoW and PoS is that instead of using supercomputers to verify transactions, users stake their coins and thus secure the chain.

With a Google Earth Day 2022 Doodle showing the destruction of the climate over the past few decades, it makes clear that we, humanity, must reduce our carbon footprint in every possible way. Supporting cryptocurrencies through green networks is the first step to ensuring that future generations can enjoy the planet we all live on.


How much energy does Bitcoin consume compared to Proof-Of-Stake coins?

Last year, Galaxy Digital published a report titled “Bitcoin Energy Consumption: A Quantitative Approach to a Subjective Question.” He compared the power consumption of the Bitcoin network to the banking system and the gold mining industry. The statistics turned out to be unexpected.

It has been estimated that the Bitcoin network (including miner power consumption, pool power consumption, and node power consumption) annually consumes about 114 TWh of electricity. It's a lot? Well, not exactly: the traditional banking system consumes about 263.72 TWh, while the gold mining industry uses about 240.61 TWh. So we are talking about more than double the consumption of electricity.

However, it is worth noting that the estimate of energy consumption in the financial system and the gold mining industry is not easy to calculate. This means that the real demand here may be even higher.

However, it’s worth considering what this looks like for proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies. The Trades of Crypto report comes to our aid. This company drilled down the green coin data and finally selected the ones that have the largest market capitalization, use the least amount of energy, and emit the least amount of CO2. So which cryptocurrencies are the most environmentally friendly in these categories?


Eco-friendly coins in terms of CO2 emissions

#1 Terra (LUNA) – Terra is one of the most underrated ecosystems with a dual token economy consisting of a stablecoin and a vast ecosystem of DeFi, NFTs and Metaverse dApps.

#2 Fantom (FTM) – Fantom is a smart contract platform built on Directed Acycling Graph (DAG). It provides DeFi services to developers using its unique green consensus mechanism.

#3 Stellar (XLM) – Stellar is a public network that allows users to move and store money.

#4 Polkadot (DOT) – Polkadot is an open-source, multi-chain platform that bridges the DeFi economy, facilitates cross-chain transfers, and allows multiple blockchains to interoperate with each other.

#5 Tezos (XTZ) – An open source smart contract platform similar to Ethereum.


Final Thoughts

There are many green cryptocurrencies on the market. Supporting any of the coins mentioned above is a great way to promote sustainable projects for those who are concerned about the impact of cryptocurrency energy consumption on the Earth.

Moreover, proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies are becoming more and more popular, which means that the crypto market is moving towards sustainable and environmentally friendly practices.

Which Proof-Of_Stake coins are the most environmentally friendly

Can Terra LUNA bounce back and hit the $120 mark again?

    Do Kwon’s proposal to fork LUNA Terra onto a new network has been criticized by the Binance CEO and cryptocurrency proponents. The Luna Foundation Guard spent $3 billion to stabilize the TerraUSD peg, however the UST failed to recover.

    LUNA Terra struggles to recover despite fork plan

    The Luna Foundation guard has spent billions of dollars to restore the TerraUSD (UST) peg. However, the UST price is struggling to come back. At the time of writing, UST is valued at $0.082, down 91.8% from its $1 peg.

    Do Kwon, the CEO of the Terraform Lab, came up with a plan to recover the Terra tokens. The Council of the Guardians of the Lunar Foundation proposed to fork LUNA onto a new chain using a snapshot taken before the attack on the blockchain.

    The recovery plan proposes a cap of 1 billion coins, of which 900 million new chain tokens are set aside for the return of LUNA and UST holders prior to the unbind and chain hold event, and the last tranche of 100 million to be put into the network genesis state.



    Kwon has asked community members to be patient as Terraform Labs is working on multiple tasks to stabilize UST, replicate it, and ensure recovery in LUNA.

    However, the CEO of CryptoQuant revealed that market makers, including those hired by LFG, sent 84,000 BTC, equivalent to $2.5 billion, to several exchanges last week. It is not clear if BTC tokens were sold, but it is likely that Coinbase has digested much of the pressure from the sellers, and attempts to restore the UST algorithmic stable coin have failed.

    Larry Cermak, vice president of research at WBlock, noted that LFG's holdings have increased from $3.1 billion a week ago to $87 million now as the nonprofit has spent almost $3 billion protecting the UST peg. Despite efforts, the stable coin collapsed.

    VisionPulseTrades assessed LUNA's price trend and found that if a bottom is reached, LUNA needs to gain investor confidence to initiate a trend reversal. If so, then the next bullish target is capped at $0.00025 to $0.00033.

    Therefore, a recovery to $120 is unlikely for LUNA as VisionPulseTrades highlights that demand for the token comes from investors looking to recover and buy Terra LFG.

    The collapse of Terra LUNA pulled the entire crypto market with it

    After the collapse of Terra LUNA, most crypto assets suffered heavy losses. What's Next for Bitcoins?