In recent days, "Environmental Protection, Green Practice, Eco friendly and Sustainable Practice" has become the main news headline these days. Concern about how human activities directly or indirectly affect the environment has led to meetings between leaders and global institutions and the announcement of the global energy crisis.

Some of the biggest environmental problems we face today are directly related to energy production and consumption. According to the data of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the energy sector accounts for about two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions from human activities. Energy used for heating, electricity, transport and industry includes the combustion of fossil fuels. When fossil fuels are burned, they will release a large amount of carbon dioxide (CO2), which is a greenhouse gas. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that fossil fuel emissions must be halved within a few years if global warming is to be curbed. The Independent Police Complaints Commission aims to halve global emissions by 2030.

Cryptocurrency and environment

Because cryptocurrencies consume a lot of energy, they are also affected by greenhouse gas emissions. Early cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, used the PoW consensus mechanism and required a lot of energy - more than the total energy consumption of some countries. Data from Digitomist shows that Bitcoin's annual power consumption is 132.82 TWh, which is equivalent to Argentina's power consumption; Bitcoin leaves a carbon footprint of 74.08 metric tons of carbon dioxide (MTCO2) every year. Data from the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index (CBECI) of Cambridge estimates that the current annual power consumption of Bitcoin is between 97 TWh and 149 TWh.

The energy problem of mining power cryptocurrency led to the invention of a more energy-saving consensus algorithm. Some existing PoW blockchains are being migrated to the Proof of stage system (PoS) - Ethereum recently migrated from PoW to PoS. The new layer 1 blockchain project has now added the following words: green, environment-friendly and sustainable. They describe their consensus mechanism and cryptocurrency in their white paper. The desire for green cryptocurrency and the improvement of the current environmentally destructive method of mining cryptocurrency are obvious. The secret climate agreement will be formed in April 2021. CCA is an open source environmental initiative designed to make cryptocurrency green. The formation of CCA was inspired by the Paris Climate Agreement. CCA is composed of more than 250 companies and individuals, covering the fields of encryption and finance, technology, non-governmental organizations, and energy and climate.

The exploration of sustainable cryptocurrency mining has aroused concern, and some green initiatives have been launched. One of these initiatives is to exploit cryptocurrencies using waste energy. Existing and new mining companies have been exploring the sources of different types of waste energy, which will not increase the carbon footprint when used in mining operations.

Blockchain mining companies seeking to use zero carbon electricity to mine cryptocurrencies have begun to explore that "stranded" methane (CH4) can generate zero carbon electricity. Methane is a greenhouse gas, which is emitted during the production and transportation of coal, natural gas and oil. Methane accounts for about 20% of global emissions. A company called EZ Blockchain has partnered with oil and gas producers to use their wasted energy (including methane) to extract cryptocurrencies. By converting the waste gas burned into the air into electricity to mine cryptocurrency, the methane emission has been alleviated, thus reducing the carbon footprint of the environment while mining cryptocurrency - this is definitely a win-win situation.

Autonomous is a crypto mining company focusing on clean energy, which only uses wind and solar power to mine cryptocurrency. Stronghold Digital Mining, headquartered in Pennsylvania, converts the coal waste in abandoned mines into electricity, making intensive mining more environmentally friendly. The company cleaned up decades of coal waste and used it to drive Bitcoin mining. Some coal gangue is close to residential buildings and may infiltrate into waterways, thus disturbing the livelihood of residents. By removing these coal wastes to mine Bitcoin, the environment has been purified. Although this process of converting waste into energy will emit some greenhouse gases, Stronghold Digital claims that it uses carbon capture technology to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The company claims that it can remove up to 95% of emissions.

How Blockchain Technology Stimulates Green Practice

In order to encourage behavior change, incentive mechanisms are usually set up. A good example is the recycling incentive scheme launched everywhere to encourage households and waste producers to reuse and recycle plastics and their derivatives. In a survey conducted by Finland, about the role of financial incentives in promoting recovery, 62.6% of respondents agreed that financial incentives are necessary in the case of behavior change.

Blockchain has proved to be one of the best technologies for implementing incentive plans. With blockchain technology, incentives can be symbolized; In this way, incentive rewards can be automatically distributed immediately. The invariance of blockchain technology also eliminates the space for manipulation, so the incentive is real. A large number of Web3 lifestyle applications have emerged; These applications use token based incentives to reward users who meet specific lifestyle goals with cryptocurrency tokens. Most of these tokens can be immediately traded and converted to Fiat. Mobile earning and learning earning are some incentive driven concepts, and blockchain technology has been implemented. STEPN is an NFT application called move to ear. When users reach the exercise and fitness goals set in the application, it will pay users in local cryptocurrency GST.

Drivn is a sustainable behavior change ecosystem that rewards its users to participate in low carbon footprint travel behavior. Drivn aims to make the environment cleaner by providing symbolic rewards to users of green vehicles. With this incentive system, users will be encouraged to ride more bicycles, drive electric vehicles and choose low carbon footprint travel methods.

The success rate of other incentive driven applications and concepts based on blockchain technology can also be promoted by using token based incentives of blockchain technology.