Cryptocurrency is the Future, Despite the Dips and Energy Problems

Recently, U.S. Depository Secretary Janet Yellen communicated worry over Bitcoin’s “incredibly wasteful method of managing transactions”, Elon Musk also raised his concerns over the energy consumption per transaction on the Bitcoin network.

After the reversal of Tesla’s acceptance of Bitcoin, following quite a while of consistent uptrend, practically every digital currency was sent tumbling down with Bitcoin.

Like a column of dominoes, the current month’s Bitcoin drop-off stirred up an extensive crypto bear market, ingraining fears about the life span of virtually every cryptographic currency and provoking genuine reflections on the fate of this novel market. Likely prodded by remarks from Yellen and Musk, energy concerns are currently at the headlines of every conversation related to crypto currencies.

Recently Elon has confirmed that Tesla will once again start accepting Bitcoin as soon as they can confirm that more than 50% of the energy used for mining Bitcoin is clean/ renewable. We think all this was net positive for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as Elon has pushed for cleaner energy to support the decentralized network.

The true impact of cryptocurrencies

We should look at the truth of digital currency energy use starting with Bitcoin, the first and most well known cryptographic money. Bitcoin utilizes around 130 TeraWatts of energy consistently as indicated by the University of Cambridge, almost equivalent to the energy utilization of the whole country of Argentina. 

You might wonder why transferring something that’s digital takes this much energy. Answer: Bitcoin and some other decentralized networks use Proof of work (POW) concept to ensure the safety/ consistency of their networks and to verify the transactions. 

To perform this verification (aka mining) users solve difficult computational problems which require high amounts of power and resources. Moreover, multiple users race to solve every block, which wastes a lot of extra commuting power.

A few other cryptographic forms of money face similar problems of high energy usage, albeit a few, like Ethereum, are discovering better approaches to diminish their carbon impression. 

Ethereum is working to replace the POW decentralized consensus mechanism to a much more environmentally friendly method called Proof of Stake with the incoming EIP 1559 proposal.

Read How Ethereum’s EIP 1559 Affects You – ZebPay

Until energy utilization is significantly decreased, in any case, a large number of these digital currencies will keep charging expenses comparable with the energy required to handle transactions. Expenses on the Ethereum Network, specifically, can swing from $20 to $100 in the range of only a couple days.

For cryptographic forms of money to get as generally utilized as fiat cash, they should diminish their unwanted environmental impact. To solve the problem many suggest utilizing cleaner and renewable sources of energy to mine bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

The competition to scale digital money is well under way

Considering the inborn idea of these energy-eating technologies, is there a path for digital currencies to get by in a more manageable world? The short answer is yes, however it will require a colossal change across the computerized commercial center.

One of the center parts of digital currencies, which drives their energy utilization through the rooftop, is their utilization of blockchains. Blockchains are the foundation of endless cryptographic forms of money, giving time-stepped records of every exchange across a decentralized, distributed organization. While this innovation is basically significant for keeping up strength and recognizability, digital forms of money can exploit the current plunge to innovate and diminish their dependence on more seasoned blockchain innovation without forfeiting essentials.

One of the manners in which cryptographic forms of money are doing this is by moving to more energy-effective blockchains where the actual exchanges occur. PumaPay, a digital money installment arrangement empowering dealers to acknowledge digital currency installments and get them in any cash they so pick — including fiat — as of late reported it would change from the Ethereum Network to the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). Due to the rising gas fees some small transactions were costing more in gas fees, than the original transaction itself.

Rather than BSC, Ethereum burns through huge measures of energy at 88.09 kWh per exchange, comparable to around three days of energy utilization by the normal U.S. family. With a normal of 1.46 million exchanges pushing the handling furthest reaches of the Ethereum blockchain consistently, digital forms of money on this blockchain face critical adaptability issues. 

Similarly as PumaPay has done, digital money organizations that move their tasks to elective organizations like the BSC appreciate quicker preparation, more prominent liquidity pools and upgraded adaptability, which forestall clog and resulting charges. Less expenses implies more noteworthy availability for merchants, in this way expanding volume and strength. Obviously, Ethereum isn’t disappearing, and outsider endeavors are now in progress to settle its adaptability issue. Polygon (MATIC) is one of the leading organizations driving the charge, and its updard value activity has appeared there is a popularity for Ethereum scaling arrangements since projects actually need to expand on the original DeFi organization.

Polygon (MATIC) offers high scalability with low fees and is getting a lot of traction with new crypto projects which are integrating matic on their platforms to offer their users the same services for cheaper fees and quicker transactions.

Conclusion

For digital currencies to endure the trial of time and solve the crypto Energy Problems, sustainability isn’t sufficient — accessibility should be similarly focused on. The new bull run was started by a rush of retail financial investors, trailed by institutional financial backers. To support this development and draw in new financial backers, the crypto money market should be receptive and clear. Lower energy expenses are a beginning, however there is significantly more work to be done to improve on the system.

One can think of the current problems in scaling Crypto currencies like the pre internet era issues, like who could believe that you will stream videos over the internet, take live meetings and so on. So it’s your choice to explore the crazy internet money world right now or just be a late adopter like last time.

What seems unreasonable today will be the norm once it’s realized, as crypto currencies will decentralize power and will be more efficient and safer than our current systems they will seem as the obvious answer.

Image Source – block-builders.net