Blockchain

Solana uses the least energy per transaction, report says, but there’s a catch

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Solana (Sol) is one of the most active proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains and, according to a new report, appears to be a PoS protocol that consumes the least amount of electricity per transaction.

Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute (CCRI), a research startup focused on the environmental impact of cryptocurrencies, release On Wednesday, a new report calculated the electricity consumption and carbon footprint of major PoS blockchains.

CCRI specifically analyzed PoS networks, including Cardano, Solana, Polkadot, Avalanche, Algorand, and Tezos.

In the study, the Solana blockchain consumed 0.166 watt-hour (Wh) of electricity per transaction, making it the most energy efficient of the six networks analyzed in terms of energy used per transaction, according to CCRI findings PoS protocol.

Cardano, the largest PoS network by market cap at the time of writing, consumes the most electricity per transaction at 52 Wh, the report said. However, CCRI found that Cardano used the least amount of power per node when it came to a “per node” comparison.

Power consumption per transaction for PoS systems and Visa. Source: CCRI

“The metric depends on the volume of transactions taking place on the respective blockchain, and the total power consumption per transaction also depends on the number of nodes connected to the respective network. In general, these numbers are expected to decrease as the transaction rate increases, It doesn’t matter which blockchain is used,” the study reads.

Although Solana has lower energy consumption per transaction, the PoS protocol still consumes a lot of energy compared to other PoS networks due to the heavy usage of the network. According to CCRI research, the Solana blockchain emits 934 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, compared to 33 tons for Polkadot.

According to CoinGecko, Solana is the most traded PoS protocol at the time of writing, with a daily volume of $2.9 billion, while Polkadot’s daily volume is around $900,000.

A comparison of the annual carbon footprint of a PoS network with a round-trip business class flight. Source: CCRI

related: Fossils vs. Renewables, PoW vs. PoS: Key Policy Issues for Crypto Mining in the U.S.

Unlike major blockchain networks such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, which use mining operations to confirm transactions based on a proof-of-work (PoW) mechanism, PoS blockchains rely on users to simply lock up tokens.Since PoS blockchains do not require additional energy from miners to validate transactions, they are considered more energy efficient.

As previously reported, many global financial regulators have so far not used PoW’s high energy consumption rates Another reason for prohibition Use cryptocurrencies like BTC.They may also want to ban global banks as the traditional banking system is reported Use twice as much energy than the entire Bitcoin network as of March 2021.