Did you know Bitcoin is estimated to consume 5.8 terawatt-hours per year if miners consume energy at an average rate of .20 kWh per hour? This is enough energy to power 4,000 households.

Cryptocurrencies are not environment-friendly because of their enormous energy requirements. They can produce a lot of carbon footprints.

Every Cryptocurrency transaction requires a miner to process the transaction and complete the blockchain. This requires a great deal of computing power, consuming tons of electricity and producing heat.

Here in this article, we shall list 5 uncommon Cryptocurrencies that are eco-friendly and give us the option to make greener investments.

What Are Eco-friendly Cryptocurrencies?

Green Cryptocurrencies are those which are environmentally friendly. They have a much smaller “carbon footprint” than any other Cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or Ethereum. They use a different algorithm to process transactions and evidently use different technology.

In the wake of the Cryptocurrencies being processed by ordinary computers, they could, at most, perform just limited transactions in a day. However, green Cryptocurrencies can be processed without any limitation in a day.

These Cryptocurrencies work with solar power, wind power, and hydroelectricity. They have low power consumption and zero waste output, so they can be used for long periods of time without depleting their supply.

5 Eco-friendly Cryptocurrencies

Let us now jump into the list of top 5 environment-friendly Cryptocurrencies that you should know to start investing in—

SolarCoin

SolarCoin is a Cryptocurrency that rewards solar energy production. SolarCoins can be traded for real-world currency or for BTC on exchange platforms like bitcoin buyer.

SolarCoin can be earned through solar panel energy generation and by donating to solar projects. If a homeowner has solar panels on their roof, and those solar panels generate over one megawatt-hour of electricity per year, the homeowner can apply for SolarCoin.

Powerledger

Power Ledger uses Ethereum to establish a trusted relationship between the buyer and seller. The buyer can choose a trusted peer to act as a middleman to mitigate the risks of buying and selling.

Through blockchain technology, a record of both transactions is created and stored on a public ledger. The peer, who acts as a trusted third party, can verify the transactions, which helps to minimise fraud.

Chia

Chia is the first Cryptocurrency in the world to be backed by a full-stack of environmentally friendly and sustainable products.

Chia uses a proprietary, next-generation AI solution designed to comprehensively measure the impact of the global marketplace and then translate the social good that companies create into tokens.

Nano

Nano is an environment-friendly Cryptocurrency that has existed since 2015. It consumes less energy than Bitcoin, Ethereum and many other Cryptocurrencies.

Nano is not fully peer-to-peer. Unlike other Cryptocurrencies, Nano is a block lattice. This means that each user has their own blockchain, and each blockchain only holds account balances.

Therefore, there is no transaction history other than the current state. This is a huge advantage because it eliminates data duplication.

Users also do not need to download the entire blockchain, just the part that belongs to them. This makes Nano a lightning-fast Cryptocurrency that requires minimal resources to operate and has near zero fees.

Cardano

Cardano's goal is to provide a decentralised, secure, and scalable blockchain platform that is easy to use while simultaneously preserving the environment. Cardano uses a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, which allows for energy-efficient operation.

The Proof of Stake algorithm is used to generate new coins in Cardano through mining, but it also helps maintain the blockchain by validating transactions and blocks after they have been added to the chain.

This means that it consumes less energy than PoW algorithms because you don't need as much computing power to validate transactions and blocks as you do with PoW algorithms.

Wrapping Up!

The Earth is getting warmer and warmer. The planet is experiencing an increase in greenhouse gas emissions due to human activity and deforestation. This means that we will have to find new ways to reduce our impact on the environment.

A good place to start would be investing in environment-friendly Cryptocurrencies. As we have already discussed, these digital currencies use renewable energy sources like solar or wind power, which are more sustainable than fossil fuels.

You can also invest in Cryptocurrencies that use green technology, such as LED lighting or solar panels.

They can help preserve biodiversity around the world by encouraging people to buy these currencies instead of fiat currency that is produced by exploiting natural resources like oil and coal.