With the world increasingly going digital, the demand for cryptocurrencies is higher than ever before. The crypto space is still an unregulated, murky world where anything could happen. With the crypto market growing exponentially, people are increasingly aware of the impact of cryptocurrencies on the environment. Cryptocurrencies use a lot of energy to mine, and the process of mining is rather unsustainable. This has led to the emergence of “greenwashed” cryptocurrencies, which are trying to position themselves as more sustainable alternatives. Here are the top 5 cryptocurrencies seeking a greenwash.
#1 SolarCoin:
SolarCoin is a decentralized and global cryptocurrency that rewards users for generating solar energy. For every Megawatt hour generated from solar technology, SolarCoin creates and distributes a SolarCoin to the user. SolarCoin helps to offset the cost of installing a solar array by allowing users to earn SolarCoin by providing proof of energy generation.
#2 Stellar:
Stellar Network is operated by Stellar Development Foundation and was released in 2014. Stellar is an open blockchain network providing enterprise solutions by connecting financial institutions for the purpose of large transactions. Stellar Consensus Protocol (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. Its cycle for authentication is shorter and faster than most of the other cryptocurrencies, keeping the costs low and energy uses minimum.
#3 Cardano:
Developed by the co-founder of Ethereum, Charles Hoskinson, Cardano functions mainly as a digital currency but can also be used for digital contracts, DApps, and other purposes. Its most amazing feat would be that compared to Bitcoin’s 7 transactions a second, Cardano can achieve 1000 per second. Cardano is a lot more energy efficient due to its ‘Proof of Stake’ consensus mechanism, which allows those participating in the currency buy tokens to join the network resulting in saving huge energy.
#4 Algorand:
Algorand is another open-source, payments-focused blockchain network, aiming to solve one of the most persistent problems facing cryptocurrency: scalability. Algorand does not involve mining and, hence, the network is trying to lead the way in blockchain sustainability by creating a carbon-negative network. Last year Algorand claimed that its blockchain is fully carbon neutral.
#5 Nano:
Nano was released in 2015 and uses a different kind of ledger technology known as directed acyclic graph (DAG). DAG is not a blockchain and doesn’t require mining. Nano uses an energy-efficient Block-lattice technology and the cryptocurrency is known for its free, fast, and low-energy transactions.
