Sustainability in the crypto sector is more concerning as climate change affects the planet and people’s health more every year. But the trend of green cryptocurrencies started after some light was shed on the considerable environmental impact of Bitcoin, the first digital coin created in 2009. With enormous carbon footprint statistics, the coin’s efficiency and reliability were overshadowed by its negative effect on the environment. Therefore, many investors looked for green alternatives, or at least cryptocurrencies making an effort towards sustainability.
Ethereum, for example, made an impressive step towards better practices by switching from the old PoW to PoS, eliminating 99.99% of its carbon footprint. On the other hand, newer cryptocurrencies already promote themselves as green since their arrival on the market, targeting a specific customer audience. But what makes a cryptocurrency sustainable? It’s not reducing a coin’s or blockchain’s energy consumption but also includes alternatives for keeping the network efficient and scalable. Carbon offsets are also popular solutions.
Sustainable cryptocurrencies are essential for environmental safety but also make investors aware of their impact with more and more people following day trading signals the trend is always rising year on year. Technology and development can’t continue affecting the environment when their purpose is to improve people’s lives.
So, here are the top 10 sustainable cryptocurrencies you might want to invest in 2023.
SolarCoin
SolarCoin was released in 2014 as the first energy-backed cryptocurrency that aims to support the global energy transition. With its unique low-cost and low-carbon Proof-of-Stake-time consensus mechanism, the blockchain gets to produce solar energy. For every MWH of solar energy, users receive one SolarCoin. The rewarding process is based on users uploading research on energy generation, but this method will soon be streamlined to become more efficient.
PowerLedger
PowerLedger was established in 2016 on the PowerLedger platform. It got the public’s attention in 2021, when the coin’s prices increased considerably, despite the market crash of that time. The platform ensures peer-to-peer energy trading through a system that tracks important data, such as energy trading, flexibility and environmental commodities of the services provided. The blockchain is already used by other businesses to become more energy resilient. To contribute to mitigating climate change, PowerLedger collaborates with the Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System organization to facilitate trading.
Cardano
Released in 2017, Cardano was created by the co-founder of Ethereum to be the world’s first peer-reviewed blockchain solution. It functions as a digital currency but can also be included in digital contracts and DApps. Cardano is so efficient that compared to Bitcoin’s seven transactions approved per second, it reaches 1000 per second. Cardano is similar to Ethereum in many ways but is more developed in regard to sustainability as it scales easier without compromising speed or efficiency.
Stellar
Stellar was released in 2014 and became an alternative to PayPal. The blockchain system aims to blend traditional financing and digital currency together by providing cost-effective cross-border transactions easier and faster. Developed by an NGO, Stellar works as a regular cryptocurrency exchange, and its tokens, Lumens, help facilitate trading and lower carbon footprint. Stellar’s consensus protocol makes the authentication process much easier by keeping costs and energy use as low as possible. Stellar worked closely with companies like Deloitte and IBM, leading the cryptocurrency’s Shariah-compliant certificate receiving.
Nano
Nano was created around 2015 and is an excellent alternative to Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency has a considerably low carbon footprint stat and is free for anyone, as it doesn’t rely on mining. The blockchain is based on block lattice technology through which an account chain is created for every user. It barely uses its PoW mechanism and can handle 125 transactions per second due to basing its activities only on the sender and receiver account chains.
IOTA
IOTA was initially released in 2016, but IOTA 2.0 is expected to be issued this year. With a small energy consumption on the network thanks to its Fast Probabilistic Consensus, IOTA uses only 0.11 watts per transaction, which is even lower than VISA or Mastercard. IOTA is also one of the most transparent cryptocurrencies regarding its progress, posting updates regularly. In terms of price, IOTA is more stable than many other cryptocurrencies on the market.
TRON
TRON is also an NGO-based public blockchain released in 2017. It supports a varied number of programming languages, meaning it’s very manageable for many developers. The blockchains ensure sustainability by allowing developers to share applications right on the blockchain. TRON operates on the Super Representatives model, making it easier to open it to new possibilities, such as creating decentralized gaming platforms.
Signum
Signum was originally the old Burstcoin delisted from the market in 2019. In 2021, the cryptocurrency became Signum, and its rewarding method is based on developers using storage for mining. This method is more efficient than regular mining. At the same time, Signum helps increase capacity quickly without requiring more hardware. The blockchain uses a Proof of Commitment consensus mechanism.
Holochain
With its release in 2018, Holochain broke the market by introducing hosting on a computer or device instead of mining. The open-source framework had even more success in 2021 with a rise in pricing, and since it doesn’t rely on PoW or PoS, it’s considerably faster and more efficient. It’s also an accessible cryptocurrency because it can operate on a regular browser. Its most apparent disadvantage is that it is centralized in some ways.
Hedera Hashgraph
Hedera Hashgraph is a decentralized network known for overpassing Ethereum in the number of transactions processed, more than 100,000 TPS. The cryptocurrency is based on PoS and is mainly used for in-app payments. Considering it’s based on a Directed Acyclic Graph, the verification process increases if more transactions are added to the network. Other services provided include customizable transactions, smart contracts and file services.
Bottom line
In response to climate change concerns, developers and crypto enthusiasts sought solutions for continuing mining and investing in crypto without harming the environment. Luckily, current cryptocurrencies changed, updated their systems and decreased energy use considerably, while other green cryptocurrencies were recently released to the market and performing exceptionally.
