Europe gets its first carbon-negative blockchain — Elrond (EGLD)

The impact of blockchain technology on the environment has been a hot topic for years now, but never so much as in 2021, following Tesla’s decision to start accepting Bitcoin payments due to it not being eco-friendly. With the awareness of the environmental impact of blockchain technology at its peak, any chain that makes an effort to reduce its carbon footprint is bound to get the attention of the industry.

So, that’s exactly what many are now trying to do, and Elrond (EGLD/USD) has been one of the most successful ones. In fact, it has just become the first carbon-negative blockchain in Europe, and a leader of this new wave of energy-efficient blockchains that have found a way to remain highly scalable and climate-friendly.

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The project recently reported that it is offsetting more CO2 than its network accounts for, with its CEO, Beniamin Mincu, stating humanity’s progress beyond what we thought was possible can only continue if humanity is aware of its impact on the environment.

How efficient is Elrond, really?

While blockchain technology is addressing the economic problems of the world, which is undoubtedly extremely important, the problem is that the biggest and most popular solutions are extremely energy inefficient. Elrond found a way to change this, and still remain highly scalable.

Its network is capable of processing as many as 15,000 TPS, and it can go beyond 100,000 TPS if required. Meanwhile, the energy required for processing these transactions is up to 6 million times lower. The project working on making sure that its technology can make a positive economic contribution, without damaging the environment along the way, and so far, it has managed to come and stay ahead of the blockchain’s carbon footprint.

Its developers wish to make Elrond a fertile ground for the current and next generations of innovators. These are not just empty claims, either, as sustainability experts from Offsetra did a rather thorough, and even rigorous analysis of the blockchain and its impacts, finding that more than 5,000 servers in 30 different countries are generating a 6m kg CO2 footprint while offsetting this by retiring carbon units equivalent to 7.4 m kg CO2.  So, Elrond is not only cleaning after itself, but it has the potential to do much more.