‘Green oasis’ for Bitcoin mining: Norway has almost 1% of global BTC hash rate

April 4, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Norway’s Bitcoin mining credentials are impressive: The small European country hosts 0.77% of Bitcoin’s hash rate using 100% green, renewable energy.

Bitcoin (BTC) mining in Norway is 100% renewable and “flourishing,” according to a report by Arcane Research.

“A green oasis of renewable energy,” Norway contributes almost 1% to the global hash rate and is almost entirely powered by hydropower.

Using data from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index and by mapping out the mining facilities, the report concludes that Norway contributes 0.77% to the Bitcoin total global hash rate. By way of comparison, Norway’s population of 5 million contributes a tenth of that—or 0.07% of the global population.

Crucially, according to the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE), Norway’s electricity mix is 100% renewable, with 88% hydro and 10% wind. That means Bitcoin miners in Norway are solely using “green” energy.

"The most important takeaway for Bitcoin miners regarding Norway’s electricity mix is that it’s fully renewable, and will stay like that."

Jaran Mellerud, an analyst for Arcane Research and the author of the report, told Cointelegraph that there will be “huge growth for mining in Northern Norway, where stranded hydropower is abundant, giving miners access to extremely cheap and 100% renewable electricity.”

“Heat is very valuable in the cold north, which allows for the repurposing of excess heat from mining operations, which can further benefit both the industry and society.”

German company Bluebite has operated data centers in the Norwegian Arctic since 2018. One of its datacentres mines Bitcoin in an area previously known as the “Hell of Lapland” due to its “unpleasant and inhospitable atmosphere,” Conor Davis, the CEO of Bluebite, told Cointelegraph.

*Bluebite's facility in Bodø, Norway (the very far North). Source: NHO*

The introduction of Bitcoin mining has rejuvenated the area formerly known for its copper mining industry, as it taps into Norway’s cheap, stranded and renewable resources.

Indeed, the land of the midnight sun offers “energy at a cheap price, secondary uses for electricity, 100% sustainable energy, free cooling and it’s an area where people would profit from new jobs,” Davis told Cointelegraph.

Bluebite is now investigating whether channeling the heat generated by Bitcoin mining could vertically farm strawberries—or even provide heating to local populations.

Nonetheless, Norway’s size and scale mean it’s still “not for everyone” as Norway is small and unattractive to “Chinese investors,” Davis told Cointelegraph. The report suggests that “Norwegian miners are not the biggest,” but Norway remains an attractive country to mine Bitcoin due to its renewable energy credentials and the wealth of interesting and innovative secondary uses for the heat generated by Bitcoin mining.

*Timber waiting to be dried by Bitcoin miner '"waste'"heat at Kryptovault's mining facility. Source: Kryptovault*

A growing trend, Bitcoiners around the world and finding fresh ways to use the "waste" heat from Bitcoin mining. One Bitcoiner is heating his campervan with an S9, while a Dutch company is growing Bitcoin flowers, thanks to Satoshi’s invention.

The CEO of Kryptovault, Kjetil Hove Pettersen told Cointelegraph that they plan to “get started with seaweed operations” to complement their existing timber-drying operations, thanks to Bitcoin miner heat. Currently, “99% of our electric energy turns into thermal energy,” which is ideal for secondary uses, Pettersen explained.

*The rather idyllic, 100% renewable Kryptovault facility in Hønefoss. Source: kretslopet.no*

Pettersen agrees with Davis in that while “you need strong nerves and faith in this space to persevere when times are tough,” Norway is an “ideal” location for Bitcoin mining. A final benefit to Bitcoin mining in Norway is that the Scandinavian country has:

“Higher production than consumption and very limited capacity to transfer that excess energy to other regions such as mainland Europe."

The Bitcoin shitcoin machine: Mining BTC with biogas

March 29, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin mining

A Bitcoin mining facility in Slovakia converts human and animal waste into Bitcoin hash rate, securing the network while mining Bitcoin.

Next time someone tries to poo-poo the renewable credentials of Bitcoin (BTC) mining, remember AmityAge Mining Farm. Founded by Gabriel Kozak and Dušan Matuska, the Bitcoin mining facility uses human and animal waste to generate electricity for mining.

Matuska, the man “who met Satoshi Nakomoto”, told Cointelegraph that “methane from biodegradation processes runs our machines.” As human and animal waste isn’t running out any time soon, their BTC mining process is both environmentally friendly and renewable.

*Matuska and his colleague rigging up the Bitcoin miners in the plant. Source: Dušan Matuska*

According to Matuska, using renewable energies such as biogas “shows that we can really accelerate the adoption of these renewables and make their return on investment higher in the end,” while also being a cheap source of energy.

An ecologically sound and low-cost way of generating electricity, biogas electricity plants convert waste into methane gas due to a fermentation process. The gas is then burned as fuel.

*A steaming hot delivery of unmined Bitcoin, ready for energy transfer. Source: Matuska*

Matt Lohstroh, Co-founder of Giga Energy, a natural gas Bitcoin miner in Texas, told Cointelegraph that “finding cheap energy [for Bitcoin mining] quickly is the largest issue. All the low-hanging fruit is being plucked away.”

Matuska added that “the situation with energy in Europe changed dramatically in November with a huge price increasing together with a conflict around the corner.” As Lohstroh alludes, turning a profit with Bitcoin mining can be tricky, which keeps Matuska both “busy and worried.”

However, an eternal optimist, Matuska also told Cointelegraph:

“The most exciting part [about Bitcoin mining] is knowing that we are like ‘Bitcoin security guys,’ helping just a little with our hashrate. We are still helping to protect the network.”

Matuska adds that the overall environmental “footprint is pretty low” for their plant and that one of the excesses is “mostly excessive heat.”

*Matuska a "Bitcoin Security Guy" in front of the biogas facility. Source: Matuska*

If he is looking for ideas for the excessive heat, look no further than the creative Bitcoin mining community which uses Bitcoin mining heat to warm campervans, grow flowers in the Netherlands and dry out timber from logging in Norway.

Matuska “definitely” recommends that more and more curious Bitcoiners get into Bitcoin mining:

“You can gain a lot of useful knowledge while setting up your first miner. No need to earn a lot but the experience is worth a fortune.”

For those interested in getting into Bitcoin mining at home, while the process used to be complicated and costly, solo mining is making a come back. Compass Mining, the pioneers of Bitcoin mining at home, launched direct-to-consumer hardware sales in late 2021.

The CEO of Compass, Whit Gibbs, told Cointelegraph that Bitcoin miners are some of the biggest Bitcoin bills. He illustrates the point, “you could buy $10,000 worth of bitcoin or you can buy an ASIC (Bitcoin mining machine),” knowing full well that it should return the initial investment over a “12 to 14-month” period. He concludes:

“You have to be bullish on Bitcoin to believe that you're going to see that return in a timely manner as opposed to just buying that amount of Bitcoin outright.”

Green ‘light:’ The EU’s approach to crypto balances eco-values with regulatory relevance

March 24, 2022 Coin Telegraph

bitcoin regulation

European policymakers have backed away from passing rules which would have unfairly targeted Bitcoin for environmental reasons.

Last week, Bitcoin (BTC) dodged a regulatory bullet in the European Union when proposed cryptocurrency legislation was altered to not include a ban on proof-of-work- (PoW)-based crypto assets. Policymakers had raised a number of concerns about the relative anonymity of crypto transactions and their environmental impact. Some experts including Tim Frost, founder and CEO of Yield App, believe that the “climate change” angle reflects a hidden attempt to ban Bitcoin. But, why?

The proposed EU regulation on Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) can be seen as a hybrid approach, which sometimes treats crypto assets as securities and at other times treats them as currency. This has left legislators divided, as the European Council, composed of representatives of the respective countries, believes the European Banking Authority (EBA) should be the new crypto watchdog, while the European Parliament would hand that role to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).

Green protectionism and green deals

While an outright ban on proof-of-work, which would have hobbled Bitcoin, has been avoided, the environmental rhetoric surrounding the EU push for regulation remains. This reflects a trend towards “green protectionism” in EU regulation: The EU is attempting to protect its market and institutions (in this case, its currency, which is less than a decade older than BTC) using environmental concerns as a rallying cry.

This approach has already attracted the ire of the EU’s trade partners. In 2019, shortly after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen assumed office, the EU officially declared its “Green Deal” goal of having net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This followed a wave of greens winning in the European Parliament earlier that year. The idea of a “Green Deal” had originally been promoted by the United States Democratic Party but was opposed by former President Donald Trump, which prompted Europeans to borrow the concept.

The EU intends to pursue this goal by shifting to renewable energy sources for electricity generation, increasing housing energy efficiency and creating “smart infrastructure.” The price tag for the program was set as one trillion euros in the first decade. According to the Valdai Club, “The symbolic significance is as follows: the EU declares itself a global leader in promoting the climate agenda and sets new standards for cooperation between the state, business and society in countering climate change.”

Green — with envy? Bitcoin vs. euro

The European banking system has faced several major crises since the introduction of the euro as a common currency within the eurozone in 1999, notably the financial crisis in 2008, the 2011 euro sovereign debt crisis and the COVID crisis. Pervasive problems such as negative inflation and difficulties in coordinating monetary policy have often left the bloc relying on several stronger economies such as Germany to bail out weaker states such as Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain in times of need. This has elicited questions about the long-term sustainability of the currency.

To make matters worse, austerity mandates have often empowered populist politicians such as Italy’s Five Star party to threaten withdrawal from the euro bloc. This has weakened Brussels’ aspirations to sell the euro as an alternative “world reserve currency” to the U.S. dollar. While trade in euros dwarfs the global volume of cryptocurrency transactions by several orders of magnitude, it’s understandable that eurocrats would want to avoid competition with a liquid medium of exchange.

Europe’s financial targets

According to Tim Frost, founder and CEO of fintech firm Yield App, “there has been little work undertaken to truly understand the actual environmental impact of mining cryptocurrencies, not least compared to the oil and gas industry that the EU and other global governments are still very happy to support through kickbacks and incentives.” He adds that “if regulators were seriously concerned about the environmental impact of industries, then cryptocurrency would surely be the last industry to be considered.”

Frost voiced suspicion about singling out of cryptocurrency in the environmental debate, which he said was “somewhat lopsided, if not suspicious,” given that the proof-of-work system originally targeted by legislators was an essential part of the architecture of Bitcoin, which accounts for the lion’s share of the cryptocurrency economy.

It can be said, however, that both the euro and cryptocurrency possess a unique set of political risks in that they are not tied to traditional states engaging in traditional monetary policy. EU regulators have already been accused of trying to “punish” the United Kingdom for Brexit as a warning sign to other potential leavers, so it’s not unfair to argue that attempts to hobble crypto could be driven more by self-interest than by environmental notions.

Brussels as an exporter of regulatory standards

Setting new rules involving trade is also seen as a win for European lawmakers in and of itself. During Donald Trump’s time in office, many opined that the U.S. could no longer be seen as “the leader of the free world” in terms of policy initiatives and was focusing on “America first.”

The United States, in the eyes of Europeans, had turned its back on global regulatory initiatives. The most poignant reflection of this was Washington D.C.’s decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement on climate change. Trump’s backtracking on the Iran deal was another indicator that the U.S. had switched to favoring unilateral policymaking and was willing to “weaponize” its role in the global economy as well as that of the dollar.

This left the EU with a window of opportunity to take a leadership role. While international formats such as the G-20 and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) had larger aggregate economies, they lacked the EU’s expertise as a consensus-based supranational union capable of establishing and maintaining standards.

In the late 1990s, when the internet and global banking were first coming into their own, the OECD had taken the lead in introducing new global regulations to prevent companies from utilizing low-tax jurisdictions. In 2000, the OECD introduced a “blacklist” of uncooperative tax havens and identified 31 such jurisdictions by 2002. At the time, the OECD countries accounted for the lion’s share of the global economy. These were able to force all of them to implement its standards of transparency and exchange of information.

Taken together, these forces underlie what on the surface looks as the push to emphasize environmental concerns the EU's emerging crypto regulation

Flower powered: Bitcoin miner heats greenhouses in the Netherlands

February 17, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin mining

A greenhouse in the Netherlands warmed with Bitcoin miner waste heat brings new meaning to the word "Dutch oven."

Bitcoin (BTC) mining generates a lot of “waste” heat. As energy prices spiral out of control in Europe, miners have come up with creative ways of recycling the heat generated by solving valid Bitcoin blocks.

Whereas in Norway, a miner is drying wood from the local timber mill, across the North Sea in the Netherlands, a miner is heating greenhouses to grow produce and bloom “Bitcoin flowers.”

In a win-win partnership between a Dutch farmer and a Bitcoin miner, Bitcoin Bloem mines Bitcoin and bud flowers in greenhouses in the province of North Braband, southeast of Rotterdam.

It works like this: Bitcoin Bloem mines BTC in the farmer’s greenhouses and pays the electricity bill; the farmer gets free heat to grow its crops. Consider the “Bitcoin flowers” that Bitcoin Bloem sells the cream in the coffee to the climate-friendly operation.

Bert de Groot, the founder of Bitcoin Bloem, told Cointelegraph that the operation “reduces the use of natural gas” in the greenhouse growing process, as Bitcoin miner heat replaces polluting gas heaters.

*A Bitcoin miner in action, solving blocks and heating up the greenhouse, Source: Twitter*

Plus, using BTC miners to heat saves both the farmer and Bitcoin Bloem a pretty penny. For the farmer, miner heat makes sense because natural gas prices have "skyrocketed." For Bitcoin Bloem, they get access to cheaper electricity.

When asked whether the Netherlands could welcome more BTC miners in the future, de Groot said the country could “be an optimal location for Bitcoin mining.”

“Most large scale data centers of tech giants are located in the Netherlands, for example, Google and Facebook, because there is an abundance of cooling water and cheap electricity for large scale operations.”

He added that the “Texas solution would be interesting to roll out in the Netherlands.” The Texas solution revolves around “load balancing,” and working in tandem with local authorities to regulate power demand.

Currently, the Netherlands remains a relatively strict European country about cryptocurrency activities. However, grassroots movements such as Domino's franchises offering salary top-ups in BTC and Dutch football clubs supporting Satoshi's invention are building momentum.

The flowers that Bitcoin Bloem sells are appropriately named “White Rabbit” and “Blue Pill. In a jibe at the energy FUD that is often slung at Bitcoin, the website jokes, “We offer you flowers for your Bitcoin because your bitcoin is a waste of energy too.”

Bitmain signs 500MW joint venture with sustainable BTC miner Merkle Standard

February 11, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Antminer

Sustainable Bitcoin mining gets a boost from the joint venture between mostly hydro-powered BTC miners Merkle Standard and infrastructure provider Bitmain.

Beijing-based Bitmain has partnered with a United States-based sustainable Bitcoin miner, Merkle Standard, which will contribute capital investment, expertise and parts.

As part of the joint venture, Bitmain will contribute to the development of up to 500 MW of clean digital mining infrastructure at Merkle Standard's hydro-powered facilities in Eastern Washington.

Bitmain is a household name in the Bitcoin (BTC) ecosystem, famed for the Antminer brand, the name behind popular Bitcoin ASIC miners the S9 and S19. Merkle Standard claims to be a carbon-conscious BTC miner, keen to become net carbon negative by year-end. Merkle Standard will install up to 150,000 Bitmain mining machines thanks to the venture.

Ruslan Zinurov, CEO of Merkle Standard, told Cointelegraph that the partnership with Bitmain will “catapult our growth plan of building one of North America’s largest sustainable digital asset mining platforms.”

In a further commentary, Josh Zappala, chief strategy officer at Merkle Standard, underlined the benefits BTC mining brings to the social fabric of local communities. With aspirations to become one of the area’s largest employers, the joint venture will introduce “35–50 full-time jobs to the site,” while “supporting local business.” He told Cointelegraph:

“Due to the flexible characteristics of the data center’s power load, we are suited to be the ideal power consumer for our power providers and look forward to providing additional support to the community.”

No strangers to scrutiny, Merkle Standard’s move reflects the trend of BTC miners worldwide upping their ESG credentials. The Bitcoin Mining Council boasted a sustainable energy mix of 58.5% in the fourth quarter of 2021, while miners in Norway are even using waste heat to dry out lumber.

According to the press release, data center development has entered the first phase of production at the Merkle Standard mothership in Eastern Washington. The 225MW site will expand to 500MW by the second quarter of 2022.

The new equipment, including Bitmain’s S19J Pro, S19 XP, and S19+ hydro miners will come online in Eastern Washington, although Merkle Standard nods towards “various expansion locations” in 2022. Ultimately, the joint venture is one part of CEO Zinurov’s vision to “achieve industry-leading power efficiency.”

Samsung uses blockchain technology to address climate change

January 3, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Africa

The Galaxy phone maker will lead a tree-planting initiative in Madagascar and track it using distributed ledger technology.

Samsung Electronics America announced Monday at the CES Tech Conference in Las Vegas its partnership with veritree, a blockchain-based climate solutions platform, to plant two million mangrove trees in Madagascar over the next three months. veritree uses blockchain technology to manage the reforestation process and verify each tree that is planted.

The tree-planting initiative is part of Samsung’s nature-based action plan on environmental sustainability, specifically to capture and sequester carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. The goal is to restore roughly 200 hectares of land and sequester roughly 1 billion pounds of CO2 over a 25-year period.

Veritree, developed by tentree, a sustainable apparel company that plants 10 trees for every item of clothing sold, will handle the logistics. Built as an accounting system, veritree attempts to provide greater transparency of the entire process from field-level data collection, site planning, tree inventory and impact monitoring. Tree planters use their phones to track trees that a sponsor has paid to plant, essentially creating a digital map of the corresponding digital trees.

Samsung’s head of corporate sustainability Mark Newton said that investing in innovative technology and so-called "nature-based solutions" is vital for combatting climate change.

According to Samsung, mangrove trees are some of the world’s most effective nature-based carbon sinks. Mangrove roots, which are usually covered by water, capture and store CO2 in the soil. Samsung plans to work with local community members of the Mahajanga region of Madagascar, a region faced with large deforestation, to reach its two million tree goal by the end of the first quarter.

The tree-planting initiative is part of Samsung's growing efforts around sustainability. In addition to using renewable energy in the United States, the company recently unveiled a new smart TV lineup with an integrated NFT platform.

Enterprise blockchain to play a pivotal role in creating a sustainable future

December 11, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin mining

Companies are turning to enterprise blockchain-based solutions to meet environmental sustainability goals as well as business demands.

Bitcoin (BTC) is often used to criticize all blockchain-based projects. This is understandable since Bitcoin was the first project to use a blockchain, is arguably the most recognizable and is the largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

In the first half of this article, I will use Bitcoin as a proxy for all blockchain-based projects because most people associate blockchain with Bitcoin. Anything environmentally positive that can be said about Bitcoin will be doubly true for the vast majority of newer blockchain-based projects since Bitcoin uses the oldest version of blockchain technology.

Blockchain energy consumption

Bitcoin has been attacked for high energy consumption. Headlines pointing out that Bitcoin’s electricity usage is comparable to a country's total consumption is a popular critique. Comparisons are useful, but they can have a deceptive framing effect. For example, the statistics most often cited in these attention-grabbing headlines are taken from the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance (CCAF). The same organization also points out that transmission and distribution electricity losses in the United States could power the entire Bitcoin network 2.2 times. Always-on electrical devices in America consume 12.1x more energy than the Bitcoin network.

So, the Bitcoin network uses as much electricity as a small country or far less than one sliver of America’s energy budget. Is that a lot? It depends on how you look at it.

Another often used critique is that Bitcoin’s electricity consumption is growing so rapidly that Bitcoin emissions alone could push global warming above 2°C, or consume all of the world’s energy by 2020. The latter didn’t happen. Why? First, like most network-based technologies, Bitcoin is following an adoption curve defined by the theory of diffusion of innovations — an “S curve.”

The explosive, exponential-like growth in the first half of the curve slows down considerably in the latter half. Second, large and predictable improvements in computer efficiency will continue to lower the energy cost of computing even as Bitcoin’s growth slows. Third, such predictions don’t take into account the evolving energy mixture of Bitcoin.

Blockchain energy mixture

Almost all of the energy consumed by blockchain projects come from electricity used by computers that secure the network. Bitcoin calls these “miners,” but newer blockchain projects can use much more efficient “validators.” Electricity is produced from many different sources, such as coal, natural gas and renewables like solar and hydroelectric. Those sources can create very different levels of carbon emissions, which largely determines their environmental impact. The two most prominent estimates of Bitcoin’s energy from renewables range from 39% in this report to 74% in this report. Either of these estimates is “cleaner” than America’s energy mixture, which is just 12% from renewables.

There is evidence that the public scrutiny to which Bitcoin has been subjected has most likely ensured that energy from renewables will only increase in the future.

Blockchain is worth it

Bitcoin’s energy consumption and composition are not perfect, nor is it as terrible as is often reported. What is often lost in the conversation over Bitcoin’s energy usage is whether Bitcoin’s use of energy is worthwhile. Plenty of industries require energy or produce massive amounts of waste, but most people deem the environmental costs to be worthwhile. The agricultural industry requires massive outlays of fossil fuels for fertilizers and to power field equipment, not to mention producing harmful runoff. Yet, despite the environmental negatives, we recognize the overwhelming importance of growing food. Instead of discarding agriculture, we strive to improve the environmentals of agriculture.

Whether enabling the 1.7 billion unbanked to gain financial inclusion or offering an alternative to predatory international remittance services, it seems clear to me that Bitcoin is worth the energy usage. It’s even clearer that enterprise blockchain is an unmitigated public good.

Newer, alternative blockchain technology uses at least 99.95% less energy than older ones. Enterprise blockchain can use even less energy since it can be tailored for specific use cases. In addition to using significantly less energy, Enterprise blockchain is helping organizations achieve sustainability goals.

Blockchain as a key driver for renewable energy

Solar and wind are now cheaper than fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas. Solar and wind are now comparable to geothermal and hydroelectric. Despite solving the cost problem, renewables have several problems preventing mass adoption. Geothermal and hydroelectric are geography bound. Solar, wind and to a lesser extent, hydroelectric suffer intermittency and grid congestion. Intermittency means they are currently too unreliable. There’s no sun at night, the wind sometimes stops, and there are rainy and dry seasons. Grid congestion is similar to car traffic. Due to geographic constraints, renewables are usually built in rural areas. However, most energy is needed in dense towns and cities. Like a car in a traffic jam, the electricity is delayed getting to its destination.

There are solutions, such as building battery storage and increasing transmission capacity, but these are expensive infrastructure projects. This is where Bitcoin, and blockchain, in general, can help. Unlike Bitcoin miners and other blockchain projects can be built anywhere. They’re profitable businesses so they can essentially subsidize the building of renewable infrastructure by always using excess energy produced.

Another promising energy technology well suited to blockchain is person-to-person (P2P) electricity trading. These energy sharing schemes provide electricity suppliers and consumers with the opportunity to trade energy without the need for existing third-party intermediaries while increasing the level of renewable energy. Similar to renewable infrastructure, blockchain-based projects will incentivize the development of P2P energy grids.

Blockchain enables material procurement and provenance

Consumer demand for more ethically sourced products is steadily increasing. Companies have to prove that their product is produced in such a way that protects the environment and public health, and is made ethically. Consumers wary of greenwashing, have had to rely on information provided by companies. Blockchain-based projects are already changing this dynamic.

Everledger has created tools to increase consumer and enterprise insight into the provenance of a given object. By combining blockchain, AI and IoT, Everledger digitally streamlines compliance processes and allows companies to demonstrate the true origin of their products.

Transparency and traceability will be crucial to fostering consumer trust in food supply chains. Supermarket giant Carrefour and the world’s largest brewer AB InBev partnered with enterprise blockchain developer SettleMint to deliver a digital traceability solution that utilizes dynamic QR codes attached to a product during the packaging process.

Green financing

Green financing is the use of loans to support sustainable companies and fund the projects and investments they make. It will be crucial to close the $2.5 trillion annual SDG funding gap, which is estimated to grow bigger. A good example of green financing is the green bond (GB) market. According to the Climate Bonds Initiative, $269.5 billion in GBs were issued in 2020.

Unfortunately, GBs are not without problems, such as confirming that sustainability metrics are authentic, or that funds were used to support sustainability. Blockchain can immutably store this data, thus, projects can be verified to satisfy sustainability requirements. Blockchain can help in other ways too, like tokenization.

Oi Yee Choo, chief commercial officer at iSTOX, a Singapore-based digital securities exchange, said in this interview: “Even in markets where the demand for green bonds is high because investors are motivated by ESG considerations, tokenization helps investors diversify their portfolio across different bonds because of smaller subscription sizes.”

The blockchain industry is currently far from ideal in terms of environmental sustainability. However, if it maintains its current trajectory, the blockchain industry will not only be an exemplar but an enabler of environmental sustainability.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Matthew Van Niekerk is a co-founder and the CEO of SettleMint — a low-code platform for enterprise blockchain development — and Databroker — a decentralized marketplace for data. He holds a BA with honors from the University of Western Ontario in Canada and also has an international MBA from Vlerick Business School in Belgium. Matthew has been working in fintech innovation since 2006.

3 reasons why Tezos (XTZ) price broke its downtrend with a 50% rally

December 7, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Altcoin Watch

XTZ price broke its downtrend with a swift 50% rally once news that Ubisoft’s new NFT platform is built on Tezos blockchain made the rounds in various media.

2021 has been a breakout year for the cryptocurrency market and aside from Bitcoin price soaring to new highs, the emergence of a vast decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem and the rising popularity of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) has thrust blockchain technology into the mainstream in a way that looks guaranteed to ensure mass adoption.

One project that has benefited from its focus on NFTs and the ongoing green revolution is Tezos (XTZ), a layer-one smart contract protocol that is capable of evolving its network without needing to undergo a hard fork.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after hitting a low of $3.23 on Dec. 3, the price of XTZ reversed course, gaining 68% to reach an intraday high of $5.45.

*XTZ/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView*

Three reasons for the price recovery seen in Tezos are the launch of Ubisoft NFTs on the Tezos blockchain, the projects' focus on creating an environmentally friendly blockchain platform and rising transactions and protocol revenue on the Tezos network.

Partnership with Ubisoft

The most recent development for Tezos, which really got the price moving, was the announcement of a significant partnership with video game maker Ubisoft. The gaming company is launching Ubisoft Quartz, a platform where users can acquire unique NFTs called Digits, which can be used in-game and the platform will utilize Tezos blockchain.

.@Ubisoft Quartz is built on @Tezos, an energy-efficient and self-upgradable Proof of Stake blockchain.

Learn more at https://t.co/MzfgmL4IrX #Tezos #CleanNFT #BlockchainEvolved https://t.co/XlSEZeVlmM
— Tezos (@tezos) December 7, 2021

Blockchain-based gaming has emerged as one of the hottest sectors of the cryptocurrency ecosystem in the second half of 2021 and a partnership with one of the largest video game makers in the world could lead to long-term bullish outcomes for Tezos.

The beta for Ubisoft Quartz is scheduled to launch on Dec. 9 and will be open to players of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. Players who meet certain criteria will be able to claim three free cosmetic NFTs from drops for early adopters of the platform.

Focus on environmental sustainability

Another reason for the growing strength of Tezos is the protocol's focus on creating an environmentally friendly and sustainable blockchain network. The network utilizes a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism that is known to offer an energy-efficient alternative to more traditional proof-of-work blockchains such as Bitcoin (BTC).

According to a report released by the project, “the total annual carbon footprint of the Tezos blockchain is equivalent to the average energy footprint of 17 global citizens.”

Reducing the energy required to operate the Tezos network, which has been a goal of the project for some time, has resulted in a 70% increase in energy efficiency on a per-transaction basis for the network in 2021, resulting in the “electricity requirement per transaction being less than 30% in 2021 than what it was in 2020.”

Transaction volumes and revenues rise

In just the past few days, the Tezos network has seen an increase in transaction volume and protocol revenue as each spiked to the highest levels seen in 2021.

*XTZ daily transaction volume vs. total revenue. Source: Token Terminal*

As seen in the graph above, the transaction volume on Tezos surged to a record-high $369 million on Dec. 3, which could be a hint that some investors had caught wind of the Ubisoft news.

The jump in activity and revenue came as the project announced the completion of its Hangzhou upgrade, the eighth protocol upgrade for the Tezos network, which demonstrated the project’s ability to self-amend and upgrade without the need to conduct a hard fork.

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for XTZ on Dec. 5, prior to the recent price rise.

The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historical and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.

*VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. XTZ price. Source:* *Cointelegraph Markets Pro*

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for XTZ began to pick up on Dec. 4 and reached a high of 87 on Dec. 5, around 21 hours before the price increased 49% over the next two days.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Immersive cooling tech could help Bitcoin mining go green by 2030

October 29, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin mining

Immersive cooling technology helps to increase hash rates and minimize energy output.

Immersive cooling technology may help with the transition to zero-emission Bitcoin mining Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) member Hass McCook told Cointelegraph.

McCook, known online as Friar Hass, believes the industry is on track to hit the goal by 2030.

Immersive cooling involves submerging Bitcoin mining ASICs into a specialized cooling fluid, which absorbs and recycles heat from the data center. This method of Bitcoin mining increases productivity.

Earlier this month, Bitcoin mining company Riot Blockchain announced that it will be developing 200 megawatts of immersion-cooled Bitcoin mining infrastructure at its Whinstone Facility. Based on the company’s preliminary immersion-cooling test results, it expects hash rate to increase by 25%, and ASIC performance to increase by up to 50%.

Brian Roemmele, co-host of Around the Coin podcast, posted a photograph of an immersed Bitcoin mining rig on Oct 29 on Twitter, claiming that “by submerging Bitcoin Miners in liquid, heat and noise is reduced by 95% and we can recapture up to 40% of the heat and convert this to power”.

“Bitcoin will be 100% green by 2024,” he added, “No other system will be more green”.

Although McCook does agree that Bitcoin can become carbon neutral, he is less optimistic about the time frame.

“I do believe by 2030 it’ll be zero emissions, but I think 2024 is a bit ambitious,” he said. “And I think that immersive cooling tech might be part of the move to green”.

“So in terms of sustainability, you get durability, and you don't have to manufacture as many of these things,” he added.

Immersive cooling can reduce the need to replace equipment and the amount of energy required to cool rigs while mining BTC. While that mitigates the environmental impact of mining, it does it in an attractive way for miners, said McCook.

“The move to green Bitcoin mining won’t be for environmental reasons. It'll be to get miners’ cost basis down to improve their profits."

He added that the main game was really about whether miners use sustainable energy sources.

“The harsh truth is when you plug your equipment into the wall, you get whatever it is that's on the other side of that plug,” said McCook.

“So really, for Bitcoin to properly become zero emission, the underpinning grid has to be zero emission.”

Forgot to mention the 50-90% overclock that effectively cuts your CAPEX in half

Spend $50m on rigs, and $10m on immersion infra, and you have effectively have $80m worth of rigs. No brainer (except for the brainless)

The future is immersed https://t.co/qpt4Dwq0KK
— Friar Hass (@FriarHass) October 28, 2021

Bitcoin is edging closer towards a sustainable future. According to recent findings from the Bitcoin Mining Council, the North American members surveyed are currently utilizing electricity with a 65.9% sustainable power mix.

“Based on this data it is estimated that the global mining industry’s sustainable electricity mix had grown to approximately 57.7%, during Q3 2021, up 3% from Q2 2021, making it one of the most sustainable industries globally,” wrote the BMC.

Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor said: “This quarter we saw dramatic improvements to Bitcoin mining energy efficiency & sustainability due to advances in semiconductor technology, the rapid expansion of North American mining, the China Exodus, and worldwide rotation toward sustainable energy & modern mining techniques,”

Which blockchain is the most decentralized? Experts answer

October 23, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin

Here’s what emerging tech representatives think about the decentralized nature of blockchain technology and which network is the most decentralized.

Vasja Zupan of Matrix Exchange:

Vasja is the president of Matrix Exchange, a regulated digital-asset exchange operating globally.

“Bitcoin is the most decentralized and stable blockchain network there is. It has survived countless challenges, and decentralization ensures its resilience. Only a truly decentralized network can survive hindrances from block size wars and forks to regulatory pressure. While new anonymous networks are available today, transaction anonymity, more functionality or new approaches to blockchain validation do not ensure higher decentralization and resilience.”

These quotes have been edited and condensed.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Tim Draper of Draper Associates and Draper Fisher Jurvetson:

Tim is a pioneer of business ventures in the United States and a co-founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a leading investment firm in early-stage tech startups.

“Bitcoin. And maybe Bitcoin Cash. We want a completely decentralized currency, one that is global, transparent, open, frictionless and not subject to inflationary pressures of any kind, government or otherwise.”

Roger Ver of Bitcoin.com:

Roger is an early Bitcoin adopter and investor. He is the executive chairman of Bitcoin.com, a site featuring cryptocurrency news in addition to an exchange and wallet service. He is also one of the five original founders of the Bitcoin Foundation.

“The original goal was not decentralization.

The goal was censorship-resistant money for the world, and decentralization was the tool that was used to achieve that goal.”

Phillip Gara of OctaneRender/Otoy:

Phillip is the director of strategy at OctaneRender, an unbiased rendering application with real-time capability developed by graphics software company Otoy Inc.

“When you look at applications and usage — in other words, what people are building on top of blockchains — Ethereum right now is the most decentralized. Ethereum smart contracts enable anyone to build applications, services and goods on-chain — from games and DeFi platforms to NFTs and DAOs — using the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Decentralization is transforming the world because it is eliminating intermediaries. Bitcoin has done this extraordinarily well within the financial industry, while Ethereum is advancing decentralization and removing intermediaries for nearly every sector from media and entertainment to art, lending, crowdfunding and even governance. It is the diversity of applications and usage that currently makes Ethereum the most decentralized.”

Mitchell Cuevas of Stacks Foundation:

Mitchell is the head of growth at Stacks Foundation, which supports the mission of a user-owned internet through Stacks-related governance, research and development, education, and grants.

“Bitcoin, and it’s probably not even close. Bitnodes estimates that there are over 13,000 nodes on the network today, and while mining centralization has been raised as a concern, Bitcoin’s design isn’t predicated on, nor does it rely on, decentralized mining power.

It’s simply more profitable to play by the rules and too expensive to sustain a profitable attack; its sheer size, its incentive structure and the open membership make it extremely robust. We also shouldn’t forget that when China banned crypto, the network took it in stride despite the concerns about hashing power concentrated there.

This is why it’s the foundation for the Stacks blockchain and why it will one day be the bedrock for a better internet where provable ownership is baked in.”

Michal Cymbalisty of Domination Finance:

Michal is the founder of Domination Finance, a noncustodial, decentralized exchange for dominance trading.

“It has to be Ethereum. The genesis event started with a non-restricted public sale, allowing anybody to participate. Even though Bitcoin may be more decentralized when looking at miners and wallet holders, Ethereum decentralized something much more important: applications. Users can participate in full-fledged economies, whereas that is not really possible with Bitcoin.”

Marek Kirejczyk of TrustToken:

Marek is the chief technology officer of TrustToken, a platform to create asset-backed tokens that can be easily bought and sold around the world.

“Broadly speaking, decentralization is this ideal state that every project strives for. There are many ways people go about it, from adding more node operators and putting ever greater authority in the hands of tokenholders to allocating treasury to non-employee contributors. You may have noticed a persistent theme here: Decentralization is about more than technology, it’s also about governance. It’s about layer zero, which is what people sometimes call the community of miners, developers, users and companies working with a specific blockchain.

Now, in more concrete terms, we’d actually argue that Ethereum is pretty decentralized. True, it has strong backing from the Ethereum Foundation, but it’s still largely limited to a support role. Ethereum’s father, Vitalik Buterin, is not its CEO either — he acts more like a researcher and a thought leader. The actual design decisions are made by the developers, and Ethereum has the most diverse developer pool, and the most diverse wider community too. And with most updates, there are multiple teams working on multiple initiatives that could take Ethereum in different directions, so the process has little to do with centralized linear development.

Bitcoin is way more conservative in many ways. It’s not really moving forward, so there is no active developer or startup community around it. It’s also possible to make the argument that Bitcoin mining is centralized to a degree these days, as a small group of entities controls the majority of Bitcoin hashing power.”

Mance Harmon of Hedera Hashgraph:

Mance is the co-founder and CEO of Hedera Hashgraph, a next-generation distributed ledger technology that claims to possess higher speeds and security guarantees than existing blockchain solutions.

“When we talk about decentralization, I think it’s very important to be specific about what we mean. When talking about layer-one protocols, precisely what is being measured when we talk about decentralization? Two separate categories of decentralization are important: 1) governance and 2) transaction ordering.

First, governance: How many different entities (people or organizations) are involved in making decisions on the product roadmap, pricing of services, payments of rewards and other governance-related decisions? Are these entities all known by name, or can they be anonymous? If they can be anonymous, then there is no way to truly determine how decentralized the governance is because the same anonymous actor may pretend to be multiple different entities. Is there an opportunity for consolidation of voting rights? For example, if voting rights are associated with a governance token, then a single actor can increase their influence by buying or earning additional tokens, which leads to the consolidation of rights and increased centralization.

The Hedera Governing Council model is exceptional among public ledgers. It consists of up to 39 term-limited organizations, chosen to represent a broad range of industries, with member headquarters around the globe, running nodes on six different continents. The council members are all publicly disclosed, minutes of the council meetings are published (and hashed on Hedera using the Hedera Consensus Service (HCS)), and each member has a single vote to ensure fairness, stability and truly decentralized decision-making. Even the LLC member agreement that companies must sign to join the council is public and hashed on HCS. This model lies in stark contrast to protocols that are governed by a small group of core developers or a single foundation.

Next, decentralization of transaction ordering: What is the minimum number of entities required to dictate the order of transactions in the network? For example, with Bitcoin, just a handful of mining organizations (often five or fewer) control more than 50% of the hashing power of the network, which is enough to dictate the ordering of transactions. (As of this writing, just three mining pools control 47% of Bitcoin’s hashing power, and just two mining pools control almost 48% of Ethereum’s hashing power). Also, if a network allows anonymous node operators, then it is impossible to know to what degree any given entity controls the hashing power of the network.

Phase 1 of the Hedera network requires more than two-thirds of its council members to agree on the ordering of transactions, and each council member currently has equal weight in their vote. Because every council member is publicly known by name, we can say for certain that transaction ordering is decentralized. This is already more decentralized than Bitcoin and Ethereum. Phase 2 will add publicly identifiable community nodes, and only after there is a very high degree of certainty that consolidation of stake is unlikely will anonymous nodes be added to the network.

The Hedera network, both in its governance model and in the technical ordering of transactions, was designed from the ground up to embody the ideals of sustainable decentralization.”

Lex Sokolin of ConsenSys:

Lex is the head economist and global fintech co-head at ConsenSys, a global community of developers, businesspeople, programmers, journalists, lawyers and others made to create and promote blockchain infrastructure and peer-to-peer applications.

“There are different meanings of the word decentralization at play here. One question is to ask how many miners or validators are securing the transactions on the network and how expensive it will be to attack such technological infrastructure.

Another question is to ask about the implicit governance of the network and how many influential people are really needed to generate some particular fork of the network, and the process by which that happens.

Yet another is to look at the economic and development activity on the network and try to understand how dispersed and unique the players are in the complex system that is a blockchain macroeconomy.

Rather than accord points to networks based on this rubric, I think it’s more constructive to use them as principles for blockchains to aspire to reach. Further, ‘more decentralization’ of any of these particular types doesn’t always result in more ‘traction’ — we should be careful to preserve the spirit of Web 3.0 together.”

David Khalif of Viridi Funds:

David is the co-founder and head of operations at Viridi Funds, a registered investment adviser and emerging fund manager that offers environmentally conscious crypto investing options.

“Although there are many other blockchains, Bitcoin is still the king of decentralization. The protocol has a fixed supply cap, allows anyone to participate in securing it and incentives all parties in the ecosystem to reach consensus in a non-fraudulent manner.

Despite numerous attempts since its inception, including the most recent China ban, Bitcoin has never failed at remaining a strong, secure network. The significant adoption we have seen by institutions that are purchasing Bitcoin is evidence that smart money is flocking to the best asset in the crypto space for security, stability and growth.”

Darren Franceschini of BlockBank:

Darren is the co-founder and chief operating officer of BlockBank, a multi-protocol utility wallet that combines the power of decentralized and centralized technology in a simple, secure application.

“We’re still in our infancy, but more and more projects are moving toward becoming more decentralized. I wouldn’t claim that any blockchains are truly decentralized other than Bitcoin, which has no central control. Bitcoin’s true strength, however, is that it does not have one figure who represents its token creation. That provides a higher level of safety than any other blockchain because there is no single point of failure.”

Daniela Barbosa of Hyperledger:

Daniela is the executive director of Hyperledger and the general manager of blockchain, healthcare and identity for the Linux Foundation.

“Decentralization has many angles, and one of them is control of the underlying software and something in the open-source community called ‘the right to fork.’ We think seeing lots of different layer-one networks all running similar protocols (such as Hyperledger Fabric or Hyperledger Besu/Ethereum) is inherently more ‘decentralized’ than a single layer-one network, no matter what the protocol. That is why the Hyperledger community is building an ecosystem with a focus on interoperability.”

Ayesha Kiani of LedgerPrime:

Ayesha is a vice president of business development at LedgerPrime, a quantitative and systematic digital asset investment firm. Ayesha is a faculty professor at New York University Tandon School of Engineering, investor board member at Ventures for America and venture partner at NextGen Venture Partners.

“Bitcoin is the most decentralized protocol in the entire ecosystem. It has nothing to do with the controlling authority but more to do with its consensus algorithm, proof-of-work. The algorithm requires the miners to solve for equations that, in return, generate Bitcoin, and blocks are created. Miners are incentivized for their work. Though mining has become concentrated over the years and the network’s hash rate is mostly controlled by large miners, we are still far away from anyone controlling 51%. Ethereum, on the other hand, has moved to proof-of-stake, which is less decentralized. But Ethereum shouldn’t be compared with Bitcoin in terms of decentralization, as both serve different use cases. Vitalik initially proposed the scalability trilemma, and he’s been delivering on it by moving the structural algorithm and letting stakers make improvements to the protocol. Others are much more centralized than they claim to be.”

Alan Chiu of Enya/Boba Network:

Alan is CEO of Enya, a data privacy company that operates the world’s largest secure multiparty computation platform. Alan also serves on the Stanford Graduate School of Business Alumni Board, as well as on the board of Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs as co-president.

“While Bitcoin remains the most decentralized blockchain, Ethereum is a close second, and certainly the most decentralized among smart contract platforms, with a diverse base of node operators and multiple centers of gravity when it comes to influencing the future of Ethereum (witness the iterations EIP-1559 went through and how long it took to be adopted). No other smart contract-capable blockchain comes close to the same level of decentralization yet.”

Adrian Krion of Spielworks:

Adrian is the CEO of Spielworks, a company that combines a DeFi wallet with the massively popular world of mobile games.

“Decentralization can mean a number of things:

a. Decentralized infrastructure: The (number of) parties running the network infrastructure, the diversity of hardware, and the distribution and number of different locations.

b. Decentralized governance: How decisions about future development of the network are being taken.

c. Decentralized software development: Who contributes to source code development, and who decides which changes get accepted?

d. Scattered/equal token distribution: Who owns how many native tokens on the network?

Typically, when people speak about the grade of decentralization of a network, they do so based upon one or more of these aspects, but they hardly make it clear which ones they are reflecting on. Also, the question is: What exactly is emphasized in each of the categories? I.e., is it more important to have an even geographical distribution of Bitcoin miners if it means that most of those nodes are being run by the same company?

The fact that there is no absolute measure of decentralization in turn means that networks other than Bitcoin actually have a chance of being labeled ‘more decentralized’ than Bitcoin itself. Some might call Bitcoin very centralized, as there’s a very small number of providers building mining hardware, so that companies like Bitmain effectively are controlling the Bitcoin network to a large extent. Others will argue that not having a central entity control the development of the network is the most relevant factor in measuring decentralization, which is why Bitcoin is the most decentralized one.

I would probably still agree with Bitcoiners in saying that Bitcoin is the most decentralized, even though it’s a very tough choice given the lack of governance structured within the protocol and the relatively low level of decentralization of miners. However, the fact that there is no single entity deciding on a roadmap for Bitcoin means that the price will be most independent of any decisions taken within that organization.”

Aatash Amir of StarLaunch:

Aatash is the CEO of StarLaunch, an insured project accelerator and launchpad for the Solana network.

“I’d like to note that the terms ‘decentralization’ and ‘ownership’ are too often thrown around without true consideration to what they really imply. For example, decentralization should be considered a dynamic state. One method of determining the ownership of a chain can be defined by the percentage of total supply belonging to any given entity and, by virtue of such, incurring a truly variable state of ‘decentralization’ throughout its lifecycle. For example, when the first Bitcoin block was mined, Satoshi ‘owned’ 100% of the Bitcoin network. This continued until, of course, other miners entered the space.

All that being said, token share is only one of multiple factors in determining locality. We mustn’t neglect the root of all blockchain utility: consensus. Different chains offer different solutions to block/transaction validity. This, arguably, is where one should first look when searching for signs of decentralization. If one entity runs 51-plus percent of incoming hashing power, they now have majority influence on (what should be) consensual circumstances. Currently, there are a handful of layer-one chains proposing a variety of unique consensus and distribution methods. Which is the best? Well, right now, that answer is TBA.”

Aaron Lammer of Radkl:

Aaron currently serves as a DeFi specialist at Radkl, a quantitative trading firm with a focus on digital assets.

“If the platonic ideal of decentralization is taken to be the model put forth by Satoshi Nakamoto (and the cypherpunks who preceded them), then it would be hard for any network to beat Bitcoin. But the purpose of networks like Ethereum and other smart contract platforms isn’t to beat Bitcoin in a decentralization competition. Smart contracts are intended to introduce whole new universes of possibility that might be impossible within the confines of someone else’s definition of decentralization, and we’ve already seen some of those possibilities realized in NFTs and DeFi.

The power of crypto is that it can align the interests of multiple parties even when they have fundamental disagreements –– like how important decentralization really is. So, I think it’s less about which chain is more decentralized than some other chain and more about figuring out what the optimal form of decentralization is for each application.”

Introduction

Almost 13 years ago on Oct. 31, 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published Bitcoin’s (BTC) white paper. As a “purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash,” the first cryptocurrency was deployed with a consensus mechanism called “proof-of-work” that allows networks to agree on which transactions are valid in order to verify them without the involvement of a third party. Three years later, a new approach dubbed “proof-of-stake” was proposed to address the inefficiencies of the PoW consensus mechanism and lower the amount of computational resources required to run a blockchain network.

During those 13 years of existence, we’ve already seen the rise and fall of initial coin offerings in 2017, which became “an alternative means of acquiring funding for business projects using the new, evolving digital financial market for tokens”; the significant growth of the decentralized finance, or DeFi, sector in 2020, which is changing the old financial systems and paving the way for a brand-new type of finance; the tremendous popularity of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, which have taken the cryptocurrency sector by storm in 2021; and the ongoing development of central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, all over the world.

Blockchain technology, which is at the core of this technological revolution, has become one of the most discussed topics not only within the financial sector but also far beyond it. Blockchains are being deployed in enterprise use cases, charity and philanthropy, responses to the global environmental crisis, healthcare and longevity, government services, and so on.

Despite where the technology has been applied, one thing remains crucial: At the very core of blockchain technology lies decentralization. Leaving aside the discussion about the dichotomy between centralization and decentralization that we raised earlier this year, let’s circle back to the decentralized nature of blockchain. Indeed, there is a fundamental difference between private and public networks.

Meanwhile, not all public blockchains are equally decentralized — or are they? Some experts say that since Bitcoin is not controlled by any centralized entity, and was built by the pseudonymous (and later vanished) Satoshi Nakamoto, it can be considered the most decentralized network. Ethereum, on the other hand, can be criticized as not being as decentralized as Bitcoin. But to be fair, even co-creator Vitalik Buterin doesn’t control Ethereum. There are now many more blockchain networks, such as Stellar, Cardano, Neo, Lisk and Iota, to name a few.

To find out what industry experts think about the decentralized nature of different blockchains, Cointelegraph reached out to several representatives of this emerging technology space. The experts gave their opinions on the following question: Which blockchain network is the most decentralized and best reflects the original idea of decentralization?

Sustainability