This is how much power these 6 cryptocurrencies consume

The power consumption of crypto networks is a hotly debated topic not only among the community but also at the political level. While part of the scene sees the Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism as responsible for the high power requirements and as an outdated technology, proponents rigidly insist on its basic properties. The same applies to the widespread alternative Proof of Stake (PoS). Advocates point to the low power consumption and high scalability, while critics denounce the loss of decentralization and security. More about this here.

There are now numerous studies on the energy consumption of Bitcoin. The average of these levels out at around 100 terawatt hours per year. With the merge, Ethereum is currently switching from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake and wants to drastically reduce power consumption. But how much electricity do such proof-of-stake altcoins actually consume?

Ethereum 2.0: Almost 100 percent greener

With Proof of Work, the network is mathematically secured. So far, miners have validated transactions in the Ethereum network. They then connect the transactions into blocks and add them to the Ethereum blockchain. The different miners are in constant competition and often invest in new hardware or better mining chips.

Proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies rely on validators instead of miners.

They perform the same function as miners, except that instead of spending their wealth up front as energy consumption, they use ETH as a security against dishonest behavior. Since almost all of the energy expended to secure the Proof-of-Work network comes from the mining algorithm, switching to Proof-of-Stake drastically reduces the energy expenditure.

Ethereum Foundation

Since PoS does not promise any advantage from more powerful hardware, there is no reason for a technological arms race. The conversion reduces the energy consumption of Ethereum, theoretically, by 99.95 percent. According to the ETH Foundation, the “total energy expenditure for securing Ethereum would be 0.01 TWh/year.”

This is how much power these 5 Altcoins consume

Solona: Once praised, now harshly criticized. The cryptocurrency has comparatively few with only 3,400 validators. Ethereum 2.0 already has 417,000. Although this allows the network to scale higher or allow more transactions per second, it is also more susceptible to attacks and network failures. However, one thing is certain: with an annual power consumption of 1.9 gigawatt hours, the network is extremely environmentally efficient.

Meanwhile, Polkadot (DOT) is gradually becoming the “greenest” Layer 1 blockchain, data from Messari shows. Tezos (XTZ) is also similarly environmentally friendly. According to the US Energy Information Administration, the average annual electricity consumption of a US household in 2020 was 10,715 kWh. This means that DOT and XTZ would consume about as much as 10 US households a year.