EOS: Blockchain without harming the environment

Blockchains are a very useful technology.

In our interconnected world that relies more and more on digital technology to function effectively, it’s great to have a more secure, resilient, decentralized way to store data – which is exactly what blockchain delivers. One of the biggest issues people have with blockchain – an issue with shouldn’t be ignored – is how the technology can negatively impact the environment.

For example, Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency in the world right now and one of the most popular blockchains on earth. This makes some sense because Bitcoin was the first blockchain ever created and has a huge first mover advantage. However, Bitcoin is also the perfect example of how blockchain can have a negative impact on the environment.

According to EOS.org, Bitcoin releases between twenty-two megatons and twenty-two point nine megatons of carbon dioxide per year. This is the same carbon footprint as the Kansas City metropolitan area. This is also more than the carbon output of the entire nation of Jordan which only puts out a carbon footprint of twenty one megatonnes per year.

In fact, researchers such as Christian Stoll, a PhD candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Energy and Environmental Policy, say that cryptocurrencies have close to a total energy requirement of around seventy terawatt hours.

All this information seems to create a world where there are only two options: keep using blockchains while harming the environments or abandon this new technology altogether to protect the earth. Fortunately, this is a false dichotomy. There is another option in the form of a different type of blockchain that puts less strain on the environment while providing good performance…

There are many cryptocurrencies that now have a low carbon footprint, and one of them is EOSIO. EOSIO is a distributed ledger with the EOS cryptocurrency backed by it. It is a very fast blockchain capable of three thousand nine hundred and ninety six transactions per second.

EOS is over six thousand times more energy efficient than Bitcoin, making it far less burdensome on the environment than the world’s most popular crypto. It is also over seventeen thousand times more energy efficient than Ethereum, making EOS the much greener alternative. The annual energy use of EOS is 0.0011 terawatts of energy per year, and after purchasing carbon offsets, EOS developers had the opportunity to declare that they created the first major carbon-neutral blockchain.

EOS is a blockchain with many practical uses as well. It is used by Everipedia: a for-profit wiki-based decentralized online encyclopedia intended to be decentralized using blockchain technology so that even people in restrictive countries that block Wikipedia and other encyclopedias (such as Turkey and Iran) can still access encyclopedias and its information.

EOS also has a huge ecosystem and lots of people working on creating decentralized apps with it – all while keeping the earth from bursting into metaphorical flames! While blockchains are under scrutiny for their negative impact on the environment, EOSIO can hopefully lead the way in a new generation of blockchains that can balance environmental responsibility with technological advancement!