“Blockchain is bad for the environment” – this is an often raised stigma when talking about the energy consumption of blockchain-based services. However, few of those who raise this question know about what causes the partially high energy consumption and about potential alternatives. This article sheds light on this topic especially in regards to the MOBX token.
The Bitcoin network consumes more than 100 TWh a year which is more than some countries in the world consume within a year. In order to write new transactions to the Bitcoin blockchain, miners have to solve a complex mathematical calculation which requires energy. This is called “mining” with the “Proof-of-Work” consensus algorithm. As a reward, the miners get an amount of Bitcoin. The problem is that there is a lot of competition as only the first one to solve the calculation gets the reward. This, however, leads to using a lot of highly performing and energy consuming computing devices, which in total results in the high energy consumption of the bitcoin network overall. On the other hand, it is practically impossible to manipulate the blockchain which would require practically not achievable amounts of energy.
What makes MOBX different
But Bitcoin is not the only blockchain technology out there. The MOBX token resides on the Fetch.ai Blockchain, which is far less energy consuming than Bitcoin due to a Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm. In short, instead of solving a complex calculation the miner gets randomly chosen based on a probabilistic approach on how many tokens are staked. And with far less consuming, we mean magnitudes of less energy consumption!
The exact amount of energy consumption is hard to determine, but a good indicator is how much energy in the form of Joule is used in order to send one transaction. Researchers around Johannes Seldmaier et al. compared the energy consumption of various blockchain types with each other and came to an interesting result: While one Bitcoin transaction requires about 10,000,000,000 J, a transaction on a Proof-of-Stake blockchain like Fetch.ai consumes around 100 J per transaction (which equals about the consumption of an energy saving lamp within 10 seconds).
“A MOBX transaction requires 100 billion times less energy than a BTC transaction.”
And it gets even better: Consider how much energy a trip with a car consumes which could also be done using a micromobility vehicle. In case the micromobility vehicle is a bike, zero emissions are generated on the trip. This is exactly the behavior MOBIX incentivizes. So, by using MOBIX and spreading the word, you can help saving energy! Isn’t that cool?!