Is An Energy-Efficient PoW-Based Blockchain Possible?

2021-10-5 10:22

The emergence of cryptocurrency has disrupted the traditional financial industry and captivated the world while doing so. The decentralization movement does not only prevent fraud, but for those living under authoritarian governments, it can provide a medium of exchange resistant to censorship, giving a crucial means of financial freedom.

Although cryptocurrency has been lauded for its technological advancements, it hasn’t come without its moments of scrutiny. In May, Elon Musk decided to stop accepting Bitcoin as payment for Tesla, tweeting that he was concerned about the “rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining.”

This is because the top cryptocurrencies—including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum—require large amounts of energy consumption to function. In 2020, a report showed that Bitcoin was on track to use more energy than that of 159 countries combined.

It’s no wonder that people like Musk are advocating for greener alternatives. Despite the fact that most new technology comes with trade-offs, the issue has sparked a conversation about how blockchains can further move towards environmentally friendly practices.

This is where Proof-of-Work (PoW) or Proof-of-Stake (PoS) gets interesting regarding the environmental impact of a blockchain. Both PoW and PoS algorithms can have a direct effect on energy usage. However, PoW is typically known to require a more significant amount of energy since miners need to sell their coins to pay their bills. PoW was created as the original consensus algorithm for blockchain and is used to confirm transactions and add new blocks to the chain for data storage.

Alternatively, PoS works off the percentage of coins held by a miner. Cryptocurrencies have adopted it to maximize energy efficiency because it usually has significantly lower consumption levels since miners aren’t required to solve complex mathematical problems, like in PoW blockchains. For this reason, PoS has been the default choice for the majority of newer blockchains.

With that being said, the argument that PoW-driven blockchains are unable to provide mining solutions that are energy efficient is not entirely accurate. With advances in scalability, new PoW technology has emerged that allows this form of mining to be as environmentally friendly and secure as PoS.

Though PoS blockchains might appear to be better for the environment on the surface, upon closer inspection, they pose multiple problems due to their lack of scalability. On the other hand, while PoW-based blockchains appear to use more power initially, they can also very much have the potential to be greener and more secure than PoS-based blockchains.

During the blockchain boom, while most players in the industry opted for the promises PoS mechanisms offered of high energy efficiency, one organization, Kadena, focused its efforts on scalability and dedicated its time to building a more robust underlying blockchain solution.

While blockchains using PoS argue that PoW isn’t sustainable, the most critical factor contributing to PoW’s energy efficiency is the transactions per second (TPS). Kadena claims it has the capability to push up to 100,000 TPS, which will be confirmed in testing later this year.

This will not only be a groundbreaking speed but also make it the only scalable PoW blockchain to exist. Compared to PoS, which can sometimes only achieve 10 TPS, this is a much faster and environmentally friendly protocol.

Many PoS systems that had high hopes for PoS solving surface-level problems are now faltering. This week, Solana crashed under high demand, Arbitrum was taken offline, and Ethereum was attacked. As the flaws in the PoS-based blockchains begin to be exposed and the need for a more sustainable solution becomes increasingly pressing, Kadena, the only sharded and scalable layer-1 PoW public network offer a robust solution to the masses.

Learn more about how this leading blockchain is disrupting the DeFi space on Kadena’s website.

Similar to Notcoin - Blum - Airdrops In 2024

origin »

Formosa Financial (FMF) на Currencies.ru

$ 0.0004577 (+0.00%)
Объем 24H $0
Изменеия 24h: -0.11 %, 7d: 98.23 %
Cегодня L: $0.0004538 - H: $0.0004624
Капитализация $394.44k Rank 99999
Доступно / Всего 861.833m FMF

financial under authoritarian governments living fraud those

financial under → Результатов: 126


Singapore’s DBS Bank Gets Approval from MAS to Offer Crypto Services to Asset Managers & Companies

Singapore’s DBS Bank is the latest to receive approval “in principle” from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) under the country’s Payment Services Act. DBS Vickers, the bank's brokerage arm, is the one that received the go-ahead from the country’s financial regulator to begin offering crypto services directly to companies and asset managers via its […] The post Singapore’s DBS Bank Gets Approval from MAS to Offer Crypto Services to Asset Managers & Companies first appeared on BitcoinExchangeGuide.

2021-8-13 19:11


Фото:

South Korea: Woori Bank the Latest to Enter the Crypto Custody Business

One of the top South Korean banking groups – Woori Financial Group – disclosed its plans to launch a crypto custody service. Woori Financial Group Joins the Crypto Custody Business Woori Financial Group which is South Korea’s third-largest banking group by the total value of assets under management announced its foray into the digital assetRead More

2021-7-12 13:10


Robinhood: Business & Financial Condition ‘Could Be Adversely Affected’ if Demand for DOGE Declines

34% of free-trading app’s revenue came just from DOGE, revealed Robinhood, whose crypto under custody soared by 23x in Q1 as 9.5 million customers traded $88 billion worth cryptocurrencies. The post Robinhood: Business & Financial Condition ‘Could Be Adversely Affected’ if Demand for DOGE Declines first appeared on BitcoinExchangeGuide.

2021-7-2 17:35


Фото:

Big Bitcoin Investors – Who They Are: In Tesla’s Footsteps

A couple of years ago, large companies considered it a good form to throw stones at the crypto industry, with Bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies coming under heavy criticism. Today, many market participants have been forced to radically alter their view of this new financial instrument and even join the crypto community. What’s the reason […]

2021-6-4 15:59


Will the Biden administration's crypto-confrontation lead to a clash with industry leaders?

As digital assets continue to thrive and evolve amidst the traditional financial landscape, governments around the world are trying to exert their control and get the crypto-space under their regulatoThe post Will the Biden administration's crypto-confrontation lead to a clash with industry leaders? appeared first on AMBCrypto.

2021-5-16 00:00


Top 20 DeFi Crypto Projects to Invest in 2021

What is DeFi? If you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of years, you might be wondering what DeFi is. Well, DeFi is the short form for decentralized finance, a movement within the crypto world that aims to implement open source software and decentralized networks to turn traditional, centralized financial services and […] The post Top 20 DeFi Crypto Projects to Invest in 2021 appeared first on ItsBlockchain.

2021-4-8 15:12