Full text of UN Cryptocurrency Study: Are Cryptocurrencies a Sustainable Solution or a Climate Disaster?
Sustainability solution or climate Calamity? The dangers and promises of cryptocurrency technology
Originally written by United Nation
原文编译： Moni, Odaily 星球日报
Crypto, such as Bitcoin, has been widely reported in the media these dayscurrencyIt has a negative impact on the environment and high volatility is also a concern. Still, the United Nations believes that blockchain, the technology behind cryptocurrencies, could go a long way toward addressing the climate crisis and even helping to achieve more sustainable global economic development.
Is Bitcoin mining really a "meaningless use of energy"?
To secure the Bitcoin networksecurityThe amount of energy required to run and run properly is so staggering that Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has described "bitcoin mining" as "one of the most pointless ways to use energy."
Bitcoin doesn't exist as a physical thing, but the new digital currency is "mined" or entered the circulation market through a process that uses powerful computers to solve complex mathematical problems. This process requires a lot of energy, and by some estimates the Bitcoin network consumes more energy than countries like Kazakhstan and the Netherlands. And, as a result of fossil fuel power plants still occupied the main part in the global energy structure, the currency mining can be said to be the cause of greenhouse gases and climate change part of the reason, although so far, the currency impact on climate is far lower than the agriculture, building energy consumption, energy and transportation sectors such as "areas").
Another problem is that each bitcoin transaction also consumes huge amounts of energy compared to traditional credit card transactions. For example, each MasterCard transaction uses only about 0.0006 kilowatt-hours of energy, while each Bitcoin transaction consumes 980 kilowatt-hours, which some market analysts say could power a typical Canadian home for more than three weeks.
Above: Scavengers clean up at a municipal landfill in Zambia. (Photo from UNDP Zambia)
Is cryptocurrency actually an important driver of sustainable development?
Despite the high energy consumption of cryptocurrencies, UN experts believe that cryptocurrencies, and the blockchain technology behind them, can play an important role in sustainable development and even effectively improve environmental governance.
As far as the UN is concerned, one of the most useful aspects of cryptocurrencies is transparency. Because blockchain technology prevents tampering and fraud, it can provide trusted and transparent records of transactions, which is especially important in regions where regulation is weak and corruption is high.
The World Food Programme (WFP), the UN's largest provider of humanitarian funds, has discovered that blockchain technology can ensure cash gets to the people who need it most. According to a World Food Program pilot program in Pakistan, called Building Blocks, they can safely and quickly deliver cash directly to beneficiaries without going through a local bank. The pilot program is also working in camps in Jordan, Ensure that the World Food Program can create reliable online records for each transaction.
If blockchain technology works for refugee funding, it could work for other vulnerable groups as well. Blockchain technology could improve the livelihoods of waste pickers and help them make a living in the informal economy, according to a report written by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). A transparent monitoring system can accurately track where and how recycled waste is used, and identify who is picking it up, ensuring that the right people are properly rewarded for their efforts, the report said.
Image above: Air pollution is damaging our health, but there is still no clear solution due to the lack of available local data. (Photo by Unsplash/Chris Leboutillier)
Blockchain technology could prevent further environmental degradation
In terms of protecting the environment, the potential of blockchain technology has also been proven in projects by the United Nations and other organizations, such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which has developed:
* Blockchain tools to eliminate illegal fishing in the tuna industry
* Cryptocurrency platform Carbonx can turn people's reduced greenhouse gas emissions into a tradable cryptocurrency, providing manufacturers and consumers with economic incentives to make environmentally sustainable choices.
The United Nations Environment Programme has launched a collaborative project with the Danish Technical University and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the DTU Partnership, which believes that blockchain technology can accelerate climate action in three main areas:
1. Transparency
2, climate industry financing
3. Clean energy markets
Data on harmful greenhouse gas emissions for many countries is incomplete and unreliable, but blockchain solutions can provide a transparent and trusted way to better demonstrate how countries are taking action to reduce their impact on the climate, according to the DTU Partnership. If the size of the carbon market continues to grow, companies and industries will transition to low-carbon technologies, and climate industry financing (industries that help slow the rate of climate change)investmentThe number is likely to increase.
Blockchain could be an important part of accelerating the adoption of renewable energy applications such as wind and solar, which, due to their intermittent and decentralized nature, require new forms of energy markets. Tools using blockchain technology can help create these new energy markets and end our dependence on fossil fuels.
The cryptocurrency industry is already looking for low-power solutions
Despite the many potential advantages of blockchain technology, the huge energy consumption associated with the technology remains one of the major obstacles to overcome. Of course, many blockchain industry players are already working to solve this problem.
For example, the organization behind Ethereum, the Ethereum Foundation, is working on a new way to validate transactions, known as Proof of Interest Consensus (PoS), which can reduce energy costs by 99.95% on a per-transaction basis. At the same time, many blockchain industry players also want to ensure that the entire industry can eventually become completely carbon-free.
In April 2021, Three key groups -- the Energy Web Foundation, the Rocky Mountain Institute and the Alliance for Innovative Regulation -- have been involved in the research Regulations) -- to create the Crypto Climate Accord, which has been approved by thefinancial, NGOs and organizations in the energy sector, with the goal of "decarbonizing the crypto industry within an agreed time frame" and achieving net zero emissions from the global crypto industry by 2030.
Image above: Gold has always played an important role in the international monetary system. (Photo by Unsplash/Jingming Pan)
The ups and downs of cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrencies are still in their infancy, hence their volatile nature, and there are still many technical and political challenges to overcome:
* A single tweet from billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk could cause the value of Bitcoin to soar or fall;
* El Salvador made bitcoin legal tender in June, a month after China announced a crackdown on bitcoin mining;
*The dog dog currency(DOGE) is also widely traded, and although the cryptocurrency started out as a joke, it has seen huge, widely reported rises and falls in value (thanks in part to Elon Musk's "fomenting" on Twitter).
Still, many financial experts believe that all these issues will eventually be resolved and that cryptocurrencies and other blockchain-based financial instruments should enter the mainstream:
* Many central banks are preparing to launch their own digital currency;
* linked to precious metals such as gold or to legal tender"Stable currency", may also become a stable and reliable investment opportunity.
If the most vulnerable are to benefit from the promise of blockchain technology, while making a positive impact on the global climate crisis, more research on the technology is needed to empower experts, scientists and expertspolicyPolicymakers to engage in more international dialogue.
Minang Acharya, one of the authors of the UN Environment Programme's Blockchain Applications Analysis Briefing, recently said:
"The United Nations should continue to experiment in the blockchain area, and the more we experiment, the more we learn about this emerging technology. Ultimately, this could lead to improved understanding of blockchain technology on a global scale, as well as understanding of what impact digital currency mining operations can have on the environment and society, And have the opportunity to provide in-depth analysis on how to deal with potential issues that blockchain technology may bring in the future."
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