IOTA a sustainable cryptocurrency

We are in the age of climate change. The big global issue must be addressed quickly to prevent the worst. The topic of a sustainable economy is becoming more and more urgent. Many states, cities, companies as well as private individuals have committed themselves to sustainability.

Cryptocurrencies are not an end in themselves, they can make meaningful contributions. As I have stated several times, cryptocurrencies can help solve current problems to stop climate change. In this context, mention should be made of the use as secure, fast data and payment medium in the IOT, in the entire smart world, in the transformation of the energy industry and in the entire process to Industry 4.0.

But cryptocurrencies also consume energy themselves and that is why their use in a sustainable world is often controversial.

There are now hundreds of cryptocurrencies in existence and the technological backbone of many of these currencies is blockchain, a digital ledger of transactions. The competitive process of adding blocks to the chain is computation-intensive and requires large energy input. Experts have developed a method a methodology for calculating the minimum power requirements of several cryptocurrency networks and the energy consumed to produce one US dollar’s (US$) worth of digital assets. From 1 January 2016 to 30 June 2018, it is estimated that mining of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Monero consumed this average to generate one US$, respectively: