On Ethereum Sustainability

“Ethereum is outperforming Bitcoin” is the new headline from CNBC (2021), the business and financial news network. With less than half the market capitalization of Bitcoin, Ethereum had a trading volume of 600 billion dollars in May 2021, 60% higher than Bitcoin, according to Morgan Stanley. With the new updates expected for 2021 and 2022, Ethereum promises to be the leading data and logic processor, transaction validator with distributed storage in the crypto market, adding to its consensus protocol the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Nowadays, the pressing apprehension amid the climate crisis has pushed the markets towards sustainable targets seeking to improve their environmental-friendly practices. With this, the negative environmental impact of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin has been widely covered in the press in recent weeks and months, flagged as a cause for concern.

Although cryptocurrencies have been recently involved in this unease, what should be analyzed is the technology behind them and what it enables. Blockchains and other Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) have the potential to drive positive impact at an immense scale. A portion of this potential lies in the alignment of network value creation through participation. Unlike centralized networks, where a minimal number of shareholders control and benefit from the network’s growth, blockchain…