5 Bitcoin alternatives that are more environmentally friendly

Environmentally friendly Bitcoin alternative cryptocurrencies

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk surprised a lot of people concluding calendar week when he tweeted that the electric motorcar company would no longer accept Bitcoin (BTC) equally payment, due to the environmental affect of cryptocurrency mining.

It was surprising, in part, because Musk is seen as a crypto enthusiast and the business firm simply began accepting BTC in Feb, but as well because Bitcoin's massive energy demands are well established.

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According to Digiconomist, the entire Bitcoin mining industry has a carbon footprint comparable to Singapore, due to the immense energy consumption of powerful rigs that solve the complex equations needed to produce new blocks. Some backers, such every bit Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, suggest that Bitcoin mining "incentivizes renewable energy" — and Musk previously agreed.

Now, withal, Musk says that Tesla is "concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels" for mining. Co-ordinate to his tweet, the company is looking at alternative cryptocurrencies that use much less ability than Bitcoin's network. Bitcoin's price dropped more than 13% in the wake of the news.

Merely not every cryptocurrency uses the same kind of resource-intensive model for producing blocks and validating transactions. Plus, some are actively working to get greener — for instance Ethereum two.0 will reportedly be 99.95% more environmentally friendly than the electric current version.

Here'southward a expect at 5 other popular cryptocurrencies that have a more eco-friendly approach than Bitcoin.

Nano (NANO)

Explicitly billed as an eco-friendly currency, Nano (NANO) has no "mining, minting, or printing" and uses a lightweight proof-of-work model, which reportedly takes just seconds to procedure a transaction on a typical consumer PC.

Without the need for heavy-duty mining rigs and top-end GPUs, Nano is billed as a cleaner culling to the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum. The price of NANO nearly doubled in the wake of Tesla's announcement, but like many other cryptos information technology has since declined and is now dorsum to where it was at the end of April.

Chia (XCH)

Chia cryptocurrency and hard drive — (Prototype credit: Shutterstock)

The newly-launched Chia, created by BitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen, puts a spin on the familiar proof-of-work formula. Its "proof of infinite and fourth dimension" model uses storage space on your estimator to establish "plots" of cryptographic numbers and "farm" them every bit the network runs.

It'due south ane of the hottest new coins to mine, given that you don't demand an expensive, high-powered GPU to participate, merely watch out: farming Chia could burn through some entry-level consumer SSDs in a affair of weeks.

Cardano (ADA)

Best cryptocurrency listed — Cardano — (Image credit: Shutterstock)

Created by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson, Cardano has skyrocketed in value in 2021, rising more than x times in price since the get-go of the year and reaching a new all-time loftier last week (May xvi) of $2.44. It is currently the 6th most valuable cryptocurrency, according to CoinMarketCap, ranked by total market cap.

The blockchain network is based on peer-reviewed enquiry and relies on a proof-of-pale consensus model, in which participants hold the ADA coin inside the network and receive rewards equally a event. Hoskinson claims that the unabridged network uses just half-dozen GWh of ability annually, a tiny fraction of what Bitcoin consumes. Cardano is now actively courting Tesla to adopt ADA over BTC.

Polkadot (DOT)

Best cryptocurrency listed — Polkadot — (Prototype credit: Shutterstock)

Like Cardano, Polkadot hails from another Ethereum co-founder (Gavin Wood), who decided to attempt a different approach. Polkadot has also surged in value so far this year, upwardly more than 200% price since the start of 2021, and is i of the acme 10 cryptocurrency performers by market place cap.

Polkadot is designed as a multi-concatenation network that can bridge the gap between different blockchains, and is based on a nominated proof-of-stake (NPoS) model that is based on holding coins within the network, rather than energy-intensive mining.

Stellar (XLM)

Stellar cryptocurrency — (Epitome credit: Shutterstock)

Stellar Lumens (XLM) is another long-established cryptocurrency that has benefitted from 2021's market place-wide gains, rising nearly 300% in value since the showtime of the year.

XLM'south unique consensus model for validating transactions is energy-efficient, requiring but a pocket-sized number of distributed nodes to confirm each. As such, XLM doesn't have the enormous free energy demands of some blockchain networks, which might be why it's being tapped for big projects — for example, Ukraine plans to build its national digital currency on XLM tech.

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Andrew Hayward is a author and editor based in Chicago. His work covering tech, crypto, games, and esports has appeared in more than than 100 publications effectually the world, including Polygon, Rolling Stone, Decrypt, and Stuff. He has covered cryptocurrency extensively since 2019, including coins, crypto games, and NFTs, and interviewed many creators and prominent figures in the infinite. He has likewise personally invested in several coins and currently holds less than 1 BTC, 2 ETH, and 700 ADA, forth with smaller amounts of other coins.