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Blockchain, crypto mining and the environment: towards sustainable solutions
21-02-2022 | Carlo de Meijer | treasuryXL | LinkedIn |
Blockchain has always been presented as providing speed, efficiency and low costs. But there is also a flipside. Since the crypto industry is booming, including DeFi and NFT, and blockchain technology is going more mainstream the discussion of their negative impact on the environment is heightening.
Blockchain consumes huge amounts of energy and that is growing by the day. This while the combat of the climate crisis has the highest priority all over the world. Especially the electricity usage of Bitcoin and other similar blockchain networks have pulled into a larger conversation around sustainability. To understand this we should go back to the basics of how blockchain works. But above all, are there ways to reduce that and could blockchain also contribute to a positive climate change?
Cleaning-up crypto mining
A recent hearing by the US Committee on Energy and Commercial Staff on “Cleaning up the Cryptocurrency: the Energy Impacts of Blockchain “ shows a very dark picture. Many blockchains, amongst which the two largest platforms Bitcoin and Ethereum, still use a so-called Proof-of-Work (PoW) mechanism to support their resp. crypto currencies that require enormous amounts of energy to operate. According to a recent analysis, the energy required for a Bitcoin transaction could power a household for more than 70 days.
How does mining work?
On the Bitcoin blockchain platform, the infrastructure is distributed and delegated to so-called ‘miners’ around the network. Each time a transaction is made, consensus must be established all across the distributed database (or at least 51% for Bitcoin, for security reasons). This is done through Proof-of-Work (PoW).
Miners are thereby responsible for processing transactions and adding them to the blockchain. These are super-users who compete for the processing work by attempting to solve highly complex algorithmic problems. Mining for PoW cryptocurrencies requires specialised computers that make trillions of guesses per second. In return for this processing, the winner is awarded new cryptocurrencies i.e. Bitcoin or Ether. This all comes down to the most powerful computer processor exerting the greatest amount of effort. After that other computers on the network quickly verify and a new block containing additional new info is then added to the blockchain. After that the mining process starts over again. A highly energy-intensive process.
As a crypto-miner increases their likelihood of identifying the correct answer by increasing the number of guesses, this process further increases computational power and is creating more energy consumption. Today, PoW miners need a great number of so-called application-specific integrated circuits (ASICS) to have any chance of reliable earnings cryptocurrency rewards on the major cryptocurrency networks. The profitability of mining as well as the increase of the value of PoW currencies requires ever-increasing amounts of energy to power and cool machines.
Environmental impact
While there are many hundreds of different cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum are not only the largest ones but are also the most energy-intensive. In the past few years, their environmental impact has increased greatly in terms of both energy consumption and carbon or CO2 emission.
Energy consumption
The scale of mining has increased substantially triggered by the increased value of mining. This has resulted in a rapidly increasing energy consumption. According to the Bitcoin/Ethereum Energy Consumption Index that is looking at the environmental impact of a blockchain transaction, Bitcoin is the leading coin with the most energy-intensive mining process.
A single Bitcoin transaction uses as much energy as one US household would over 73.82 days (2.5 months). The annual energy usage of the Bitcoin network last year grew from 78 Tera (trillion) watt-hours (TWH) to almost 198 TWH.
Ethereum, while less energy demanding, still uses This is as much electricity for a single transaction as a US household over 8.32 days. The annual energy usage of the Ethereum network grew from almost 15 TWH to more than 92 TWH.
CO2 emission
Bitcoin is also the most polluting cryptocurrency. In total figures and based on 2021 estimations Bitcoin mining edited more than 56.8 million tons of CO2 (or more than 1.000 pounds of CO2 per transaction) to the atmosphere. This would require more than 284 million trees in order to offset the transactions and become carbon neutral. Its total annual energy footprint is similar to Thailand while Bitcoin emits as much CO2 as Kuwait.
ETH mining emitted more than 22 million tons ( or more than 90 pounds per transaction) of CO2. Over the year, that is still as much power as the Netherlands. And as it is projected to emit almost 22 million tons of CO2 by the end of 2021, it would take planting nearly 110 million trees to offset Ehtereum’s contribution to carbon emission.
But taken together, both these blockchains use major economic amounts of energy. These are just ahead of Saudi Arabia and Italy and just behind the United Kingdom. It would be the 12th most consumptive economy on the planet.
To put these figures in perspective global 2021 CO2 emission of Bitcoin and Ethereum mining is equivalent to the emission from more than 15.5 million gasoline-powered cars on the road every year.
Bitcoin mining ban
Triggered by the chance of having too little energy left for both consumers and the broader industry, a growing number of countries is now banning or is planning to ban crypto mining.
In China, where 70% of miners worldwide were based, authorities last year has forbidden mining. Whereas since a majority of crypto mining has been moved into lower energy price countries, the present high energy prices caused by the Russian – Ukrainian crisis forced countries like Kosovo and Kazakhstan, but also Iran and India to ban crypto mining. Early this year Russia announced such a ban to prevent winter blockheads. Even in the EU an ESMA official suggested also banning crypto mining. And it is expected that other countries will follow.
Ethereum: shift from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS)
There however are also positive developments within the blockchain world towards climate change. Blockchain technology is still young but is advancing and slowly, but definitely, crypto mining is increasingly driven by more renewable energy. And in the meantime, there is a number of other ground-breaking energy-saving solutions.
Proof-of-State networks
A promising one is the change-over from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) networks, that do not require miners to compete for energy power for zero-sum awards. This could greatly limit energy consumption and carbon emission, thereby mitigating the negative impact of blockchain on the environment.
Proof-of-stake blockchains are newer generation networks. Instead of miners, PoS use a network of ‘validators’ who will stake their own cryptocurrency in exchange for the ability to validate a transaction in exchange for a reward. Effectively, the resource of energy is replaced by capital.
Ethereum 2
Ethereum is now moving forward with their transition from Ethereum 1 (Proof-of-Work), to Ethereum 2 (Proof-of-Stake). With this shift Ethereum hopes that it will make its blockchain both safer to use while greatly minimising energy consumption. Other major PoS networks now include names like Polkadot, Cardano, and Tezos among others.
According to UCL (University College London) research, while using far less energy than proof-of-work (PoW) network Bitcoin (relative to the number of transactions the network can perform at any one time), all the proof-of-stake networks use far less energy – two to three orders of magnitude less than Bitcoin. The same research says PoS-based systems can contribute to the challenges posed by climate change and could even undercut the energy needs of traditional central payment systems, raising hopes that blockchain technology can contribute positively to combatting climate change.
Blockchain and environmental projects: green smart contracts
But there is another – and even more positive – side of blockchain-related to the environment and climate change. Blockchain technology could also be linked to various environmental projects by using so-called green smart contracts.
Green smart contracts
Green smart contracts running on blockchain may unlock new ways to fight climate change and to cope with its impact. At its core, the fight against climate change is going to require a massive shift in global consumption habits. Green smart contracts are an interesting tool for incentivizing participation in global green initiatives. Especially in the areas that ask for large amounts of data collection and verification and rewarding sustainable environmental behaviours, such as regenerative agriculture, carbon offsets, crop insurance etc. Green smart contracts could deliver great promises for environmental issues as these could scale up environmentally conscious blockchain-based solutions. Blockchain could thereby play a great role in stopping or reversing climate change if adopted on a global scale.
Ethereum: DApps and Oracles
The Ethereum platform facilitates the creation of decentralised apps that run on the blockchain. Some of these applications include the management of supply chains, recycling programs, energy systems, environmental treaties, environmental charities, and carbon taxes. These all may help make it more possible to address various environmental issues including air pollution, ocean sustainability, and bio diversity conservation.
This approach relies on networks of so-called oracles, entities that can share data about the world. The development of green smart contracts got a boost as oracles have become production-ready. Today these oracles are broadcasting agricultural data sets onto blockchains, enabling smart contract developers to build applications around crop yields, soil quality, weather reports, carbon offsets etc.
As more and more data sets are fed into blockchains, developers are beginning to produce a wide range of environmentally-conscious smart contracts applications, helping fight against climate change, reduce carbon footprints, sustainable conscious consumption, improve consumption habits etc.
New generation consumers and crypto: towards a more climate-conscious approach
New developments like the firm rise in cryptocurrencies, the spectacular growth of DeFi and the growing market for NFTs have attracted many from the New Generations, especially Millennials and Gen Z. This group is increasingly looking for and experiment with these more attractive digital and crypto-assets. But while many of them also worry about climate change and the consequences, most are not aware of the environmental impact of the crypto world. More delving into the world of blockchain and crypto would not be a bad idea as that could lead to a more climate-conscious approach.
Carlo de Meijer
Economist and researcher
Source
Instant Payments: the SEPA Instant Payments rulebook is published, what’s next?
| 20-2-2017 | Boudewijn Schenkels | Sponsored content |
SEPA Instants Payments (also called SCT Inst – SEPA Credit Transfer Instant) will allow sending and receiving money 24/7 in seconds. European banking communities can go live from November 2017, the Dutch community has planned to go live from May 2019 with the first Instant Payments services. The development of the SEPA Instant Payments infrastructures of the banks and processors are in train. In april 2018 the start of the inter-CSM testing is planned, the end-to-end bank tests and the pilot phase from January until April 2019.
From our Instant Payments training classes for business professionals and IT staff, we find that participants are not fully aware of the large impact Instant Payments will have on the complete value chain and the opportunities it will bring. In order for you to understand the impact and opportunities, I will explain how Instant Payments are processed.
To give an impression of all the change aspects for users, the banks and the interbank processing side:
For corporates amongst others:
For banks amongst others:
For processors amongst others:
As the launch dates come nearer it certainly triggers managers to now thoroughly evaluate scope and time scales for (required) internal projects and ensure to be ready and steady before launch in 2019 as well as business professionals to anticipate and grasp the potential opportunities.
The key differences between the current SEPA Credit Transfer and the new SCT Inst scheme are:
Instant Payments process
In our training, we also explain the differences between the normal payment flow (SCT) and the Instant Payments flow (SCT Inst). The process flow is described below in summary and will take place in several seconds.
Figure 1. (Source: EPC Rulebook)
Several key actors are involved in the payments process:
The new process in summary:
The Originator Bank receives an SCT Inst Instruction from the Originator (Step 1). It verifies the instruction and sends the transaction to the CSM (Step 2), which verifies the message, ensures that the Originator bank has enough funds and instantly sends the SCT Inst Transaction message to the Beneficiary Bank. The Beneficiary Bank instantly verifies the payments and if it can be booked on the account of the Beneficiary (Step 3). The Beneficiary Bank confirms to the CSM if it was successful (positive confirmation) or not (negative confirmation with an immediate Reject) (Step 4). The Beneficiary can withdraw the funds (Step 5) instantly if in the previous step the confirmation was positive (and after the Beneficiary Bank has ensured that the CSM received the positive confirmation message). The CSM instantly reports to the Originator Bank if the SCT Inst Transaction had been successful (or not) (Step 6). In case the Originator Bank receives a negative confirmation about the SCT Inst transaction which indicates that the funds had not been made available to the beneficiary, the originator bank is obliged to immediately inform the originator (Step 7) and lift the reservation of the amount made in step 1.
All in seconds and 24/7!
This all means, that beside the flow of money, there is also a flow of messages between the customer and the bank. Both Beneficiary and Originator will be informed (in a few seconds) that the transaction is done (or not).
Are you interested in what the new SEPA Instant Payment will mean for your organization?
Come to our next open training (March 15 in Utrecht) or inquire about the possibilities of an in-house training.
More information at: www.paymentsadvisorygroup.com.
If you have any questions please contact us via: [email protected] .
Boudewijn Schenkels
Senior Consultant Payments @ Payments Advisory Group
GTreasury Innovation Lab Launches with Goal of Accelerating the Development and Deployment of New Treasury Technologies
17-02-2022 | treasuryXL | Gtreasury | LinkedIn |
The new business unit is a streamlined proving ground for the transformative solutions that empower modern treasurers
CHICAGO, Ill. – February 17, 2022 – GTreasury, a treasury and risk management platform provider, today announced the launch of the GTreasury Innovation Lab. Expanding and formalizing the culture of technology innovation that GTreasury has always supported within the company, the Innovation Lab is structured to bring significant and differentiated impact to customers through brand new advances in treasury management.
The technology team at GTreasury continuously recognizes potential opportunities for treasury innovation. The company has traditionally held twice-annual hackathons to explore unique and creative ways to advance treasury technology and integrations. Now with the launch of the GTreasury Innovation Lab, each member of GTreasury’s technology team will have a dedicated cycle within the lab, gaining a purpose-built and regular outlet for putting ideas to the test. GTreasury developers also constantly absorb feedback from the customer support team, which gives them insight into the specific challenges that treasurers face. Those insights inform developers’ innovative approaches to increase the capabilities, usability, and overall efficiency of the solutions within the GTreasury platform, both for customers and GTreasury’s internal team that supports them.
“GTreasury has always been forward-looking with the technology and integration capabilities that can enable treasury and finance teams to do more and do it more efficiently,” said Ciarán O’Neill, Director – Innovation Lab, GTreasury.
“We keep one eye on where customers are right now and one eye on where they want to be. Our focus is on making sure that we’re always leveraging the latest technologies and offering future-proof solutions – it’s that philosophy that has led to pioneering creations like SmartPredictions™, our AI-fueled cash forecasting tool. The launch of the GTreasury Innovation Lab accelerates our pursuit of the innovations that it takes to develop and deliver powerful and compelling technological advances to our customers, and we’re excited to get going.”
Technologies born in the GTreasury Innovation Lab will progress through a systemic process designed to ensure the viability of a new solution. Developers at the lab first nurture initial ideas into working proof of concepts. Lab members then vote to select the solutions with the most potential to provide demonstrable day-to-day value for treasury teams. Solutions next enter a validation phase, where ideas are presented to internal stakeholders and customer representatives, including early adopters of a beta product. Validated solutions then move to a production development team to be fully built and integrated as stable enterprise-grade components of the GTreasury platform.
The GTreasury Innovation Lab already has a slate of high-potential solutions in ideation, including many in areas where the introduction of AI/ML capabilities offers tremendous potential. Initial areas for exploration include advances around BI reporting, risk analysis modules, and a reconcilement module offering more automated and accurate reconcilement between forecasted and actual treasury payments.
About GTreasury
GTreasury is committed to connecting treasury and digital finance operations by providing a world-class SaaS treasury and risk management system and integrated ecosystem where cash, debt, investments and exposures are seamlessly managed within the office of the CFO. GTreasury delivers intelligent insights, while connecting financial value chains and extending workflows to third-party systems, exchanges, portals and services. Headquartered in Chicago, with locations serving EMEA (London) and APAC (Sydney and Manila), GTreasury’s global community includes more than 800 customers and 30+ industries reaching 160+ countries worldwide.