Matt WilliamsWhich crypto is environmentally friendly is a common question both for investors and for those with an academic interest in cryptocurrency – we answer that query from both perspectives in this guide.
In recent years the environmental impact of crypto has been lessened with the development and success of many Bitcoin alternatives – ‘altcoins’ – that use less electricity and are not reliant on mining – and the market cap of crypto has deservedly grown as a result.
Top Eco Friendly Crypto Tokens – Overview
Our list starts with three new ERC-20 and BEP-20 tokens with good potential as an investment before reviewing some of the most eco friendly cryptos in terms of their strategic partnerships and use cases.
- C+Charge (CCHG) – Newly-Launched Eco-Friendly Project Offering Rewards to EV Drivers
- IMPT (IMPT) – New Project Aiming to Help Solve Climate Crisis with IEO on 14 Dec.
- Tamadoge (TAMA) – New Ethereum Chain Project
- Battle Infinity (IBAT) – New Binance Smart Chain Project
- Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR) – UCL Research’s Most Environmentally Friendly Crypto
- Algorand (ALGO) – Partnered with ClimateTrade
- Tezos (XTZ) – Pioneer of Proof of Stake Blockchains
- Polkadot (DOT) – Lowest Carbon Footprint Cryptocurrency
- Cardano (ADA) – Partnered with Veritree in Reforestation Campaign
- Near Protocol (NEAR) – Awarded Climate Neutral Product Label by South Pole
Full List of Environmentally Friendly Crypto Projects
We take a closer look at which crypto is eco friendly and why in the sections below – half of our top 10 list can be purchased on eToro which also offers ready-made eco friendly investment products.
As the climate crisis continues to challenge existing infrastructures and energy sources, some investors have questioned if crypto is bad for the environment. Keep reading as we discuss some of the most eco-friendly crypto projects to consider in 2023.
1. C+Charge (CCHG) – Newly-Launched Eco-Friendly Project Offering Rewards to EV Drivers
C+Charge is our top pick for the most eco-friendly crypto project as it is attempting to drive the change from fossil fuel to electric vehicles (EVs).
It will do that by offering rewards to EV drivers – in the form of carbon credits – as well as making EV driving more convenient and efficient.
Carbon credits are permits that allow a holder to offset their carbon footprint by funding eco-friendly projects, with one permit equal to one ton of CO2.
While Tesla, for example, makes billions annually from selling carbon credits to less eco-friendly companies, carbon credit ownership has largely been out of the hands of individual investors – with C+Charge also aiming to democratize the space.
C+Charge has partnered with Flowcarbon to offer EV drivers Goodness Nature Tokens (GNT) simply for recharging their vehicles. GNT are 1:1 backed with carbon credits from verified carbon regeneration projects and Flowcarbon saw $70 million of investment from major venture capital funds such as a16z, Invesco and Samsung Next in summer 2022.
The C+Charge mobile app will further help EV drivers by providing a range of information that has previously been unavailable. It includes a geolocator to find the nearest charging station, as well as pricing information, waiting times and if a station is functional.
The project, which features a doxxed and KYC-verified team, wants to make recharging prices more uniform and has already partnered with Perfect Solutions Turkey, meaning it now operates 20% of charging stations in the country.
Drivers will pay for recharging with CCHG tokens, which are now in the first stage of their presale.
On sale for $0.013 in the first stage, the price of CCHG will increase by 80% by the fourth and final stage, to $0.0235. Presale tokens have no vesting period and a hard cap of $6.6 million.
For more information on C+Charge, read through the whitepaper or join the Telegram group.
| Presale Started | 16 December |
| Purchase Methods | ETH, USDT, Transak |
| Chain | Binance |
| Min Purchase | None |
| Max Purchase | None |
2. IMPT (IMPT) – New Project Aiming to Help Solve Climate Crisis with IEO on 14 Dec.
Many cryptocurrencies have been labelled as bad for the environment given the incredible amount of computer power and energy they need to operate and process transactions. However, one new crypto project’s whole modus operandi is not only to be environmentally friendly, but actively play a part in easing the climate crisis.
IMPT has partnered with more than 10,000 globally recognizable businesses and organizations – including Microsoft, LEGO, and GameStop – to help individuals and companies offset their carbon footprint while shopping.
The project just completed an incredible presale that saw more than $20 million of investment and is now listed on Uniswap and LBank – with experts predicting prices to soar in 2023 when market conditions improve.
Independent rating sites CoinCodex.com and CryptoPresale.com rated IMPT as one of the best crypto projects of 2023 and further listings on BitMart and Changelly Pro are also confirmed, with more in the pipeline.
Shoppers can acquire or purchase carbon credits which can then be used to fund investment in hundreds of different environmentally friendly projects and organizations, which have been vetted and approved.
Carbon credits can be sold or held as investments in themselves or retired to receive unique NFTs in return. IMPT will also create a global score so individuals and firms can track their environmental efforts, with retiring carbon credits one such way to earn more points.
Furthermore, IMPT is built on the Ethereum blockchain, which became 99.9% more energy efficient after the ‘Merge’, which saw it change from a proof-of-work to proof-of-stake consensus mechanism.
The project also has a doxxed team that boasts years in senior positions in commercial and telecoms companies, while its social media footprint is rapidly growing.
Unlike many new crypto projects that fall by the wayside, IMPT is building a project that attempts to solve an extremely prescient real-world issue – the climate crisis – making it one of the best new cryptos to invest in this year.
Read through the IMPT whitepaper and join the Telegram group for more information.
3. Tamadoge (TAMA) – New Ethereum Chain Project
Tamadoge is an ERC-20 token built on the Ethereum blockchain which enjoyed one of the best launches of 2022 and is expected to see more gains in 2023.
Tamadoge (TAMA) combines meme coin potential with play-to-earn gaming and a Metaverse in what was one of the most talked about projects of the year and still has huge potential for more gains in the coming months.
After its IEO in September, the TAMA token pumped almost 2,000% from its early presale price and has been in the top 10 meme coins by trading volume ever since.
Although the price has fluctuated amid the wider crypto bear market, Tamadoge will tick off various exciting milestones on its roadmap in 2023 that should signal bullish price action.
TAMA is the native token of a virtual pets game where players care for and raise a virtual Doge with unique attributes and strengths, and battle with other Doges in a play-to-earn format, earning TAMA tokens.
Some studies have found that pet ownership is bad for the environment, particularly cats and dogs, and this game – which combines the Tamagotchi toy craze with crypto – moves things into the metaverse.
The project also has an NFT collection, linked to the game, while two other arcade-style mini-games are in development, as is an augmented reality app that will allow players to take their digital pets into the real world to explore.
Furthermore, TAMA tokens are deflationary – with 5% of transactions in the pet store being burned – which should see the token increase in value over time.
4. Battle Infinity (IBAT) – New Binance Smart Chain Project
Another crypto presale like Tamadoge we reviewed and recommended which has now sold out and launched is Battle Infinity (IBAT).
IBAT is a BSC token, meaning it runs on the Binance Smart chain – which is a PoSA (Proof of Staked Authority) network. The PoSA consensus agreement protocol is more eco friendly, consuming less than 1% of the Terawatts per hour per year (TWh/year) of Bitcoin.
Binance is also committed to environmental conservation and protection. Its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria as well as lower gas fees are the reason many tokens such as Battle Infinity choose to build on the Binance chain.
Once again in terms of technical analysis, IBAT also looks like a good investment with its bullish price chart – although at the time of writing it has been trading for less than a week. IBAT is listed on PancakeSwap, a decentralized exchange, with an upcoming CEX listing on LBank.
Similar to Tamadoge, Battle Infinity is a new crypto game and metaverse project – in this case with a fantasy sports theme where players earn IBAT as a rewards token.
Battle Infinity’s IDO was promoted by actress Urvashi Rautela, who has been a noted environmental campaigner in India, pledging to plant 100 trees every year on her birthday. She is also a supporter of Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), a global charity, and is often involved with other projects on each World Environment Day.
5. Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR) – UCL Research’s Most Environmentally Friendly Crypto
According to the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies Hedera Hashgraph is the most energy-efficient cryptocurrency among proof of stake coins with a 0.020 Watt Hour per transaction (Wh/tx).
Unlike other cryptos, even eco friendly crypto coins, Hedera isn’t built on top of a conventional blockchain – it makes use of a distributed ledger technology (DLT) called a Hashgraph.
That novel technology improves upon blockchain based cryptos in areas like scalability, speed, efficiency and transaction costs.
In a blog post the company stated:
‘Hedera has adopted environmental sustainability as a core value and is officially committed to carbon-negative network operations by purchasing carbon offsets quarterly, with amounts determined by the third-party assessment provider Terrapass.’
In order to go carbon negative Hedera frequently purchases green-e climate certified credits measured in metric tons of a quantity that offsets all of their network operations.
As well as being the most environmentally friendly crypto network, its native token HBAR is currently 87% off its all time high so may be a good buy the dip opportunity.
Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. Your capital is at risk.
6. Algorand (ALGO) – Partnered with ClimateTrade
In 2021 Algorand partnered with ClimateTrade who assist companies to become carbon neutral or negative through emissions offsetting services, making use of blockchain technology – so far they’ve helped over 500 companies offset over three million metric tons of carbon.
Algorand made use of a sustainability oracle to notarize its carbon footprint on-chain for each epoch (a specific period of time on the blockchain). Then to keep its protocol running carbon-negative, the Algorand Foundation pledged to lock an equal amount of carbon credit as an ASA (Algorand Standard Asset) into a green treasury.
Following that partnership, Algorand announced it was fully carbon neutral. The Algorand Foundation is a non-profit committed to clean energy, addressing climate change and being the greenest blockchain.
Founder Silvio Micali tweeted ‘Algorand was designed to be environmentally friendly’ in response to Elon Musk’s concerns over the environmental effect of Bitcoin.
Musk decided in 2021 to suspend the use of Bitcoin to purchase Tesla vehicles due to the ‘increasing use of fossil fuels’ for Bitcoin mining, including coal which has ‘the worst emissions of any fuel’.
Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. Your capital is at risk.
7. Tezos (XTZ) – Pioneer of Proof of Stake Blockchains
Tezos was one of the first proof of stake blockchains, launched in 2018 and its central selling point is being a more environmentally friendly cryptocurrency network that is self-upgradable without the need for hard forks.
Without ever having to fork its blockchain, amendments and upgrades come at a lower cost and energy output. Over the years Tezos has been considered among the most eco friendly cryptos and has increased its energy efficiency during that time.
Tezos’ electricity requirement per transaction was 30% lower in 2021 than in 2020. Its native token XTZ has been affected by the 2022 bear market more than other altcoins however, dropping under the 2021 lows – XTZ has been a volatile cryptocurrency for traders.
In terms of NFTs, Tezos has established itself as a more eco friendly NFT platform than Ethereum. NFT marketplace Rarible announced a partnership with Tezos when it made a push for carbon neutrality.
Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. Your capital is at risk.
8. Polkadot – Lowest Carbon Footprint Cryptocurrency
A Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute (CCRI) report concluded that Polkadot is the lowest carbon footprint crypto asset, with even lower carbon emissions than Cardano, Solana, Tezos, Avalanche and Algorand – also among the top eco friendly crypto assets.
Polkadot also had the lowest total electricity consumption when measured in KWh/year.
Solana had the lowest electricity usage per transaction, in Wh/Tx (although Hedera Hashgraph wasn’t part of the report – and Solana not part of UCL Research’s study).
In 2021 non-profit organization linked to the United Nations – the DigitalArt4Climate initiative – even decided to build an NFT project on Polkadot.
The environmental impact of NFTs has created as much controversy as the effect of crypto on the environment, however Polkadot NFTs ‘burn a mere .05 grams of carbon dioxide, equivalent to breathing for four seconds’, according to Unique Network, the first NFT chain built on Polkadot and Kusama.
Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. Your capital is at risk.
9. Cardano (ADA)- Partnered with Veritree in Reforestation Campaign
Alongside Tezos, Cardano is also one of the oldest pure proof of stake blockchains launched in late 2017 and is reportedly 37,500 times more energy efficient than Bitcoin.
Today Cardano is one of the largest cryptos by market capitalization – with an over $15 billion market cap placing it in the top 10 coins on CoinMarketCap. Alongside Binance Coin, ADA is one of the most eco friendly cryptos in that top ten.
As well as simply being an eco friendly crypto, the Cardano Foundation’s business practices and aims centre around very progressive policies – covering climate change, digital IDs, and assisting underbanked populations in developing countries.
In partnership with Veritree, Cardano helped to plant one million trees in a reforestation drive. They’ve also made it their goal to make Africa a leader in Web3 adoption.
Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. Your capital is at risk.
10. Near Protocol (NEAR) – Awarded Climate Neutral Product Label by South Pole
NEAR is certified climate neutral by South Pole, a leading digital climate solutions consultancy firm that turns ‘climate action into long-term business opportunities for companies, governments and organizations around the world.’
According to near.org, South Pole assessed the direct and indirect emissions of the crypto project and its validators following the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Standard, encompassing ‘electricity use, heating, cooling, purchased goods and services such as hardware and cloud services, generated waste as well as travel, commuting and teleworking activities.’
Similar to Cardano, Near Protocol then planted trees to offset their carbon emissions.
Near also developed their own NFT platform Mintbase.io on which part of the transaction fees and other proceeds are put towards CO2 offsetting projects in developing countries.
Near is considered a potential ‘Ethereum killer‘ as it can process over 100,000 transactions per second (tps) without the high energy requirements of Ethereum.
Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. Your capital is at risk.
How To Know Which Crypto is Eco Friendly
There are many ways to ascertain which cryptocurrencies are ecologically friendly from a technical standpoint, including:
- The electricity consumption of each blockchain node per year – on which Cardano performs well
- The total annual electricity usage across all nodes – on which Polkadot leads
- A Watt hour per transaction calculation – of which Hedera Hashgraph and Solana have the lowest
- Whether the crypto token runs on a PoS blockchain – such as IMPT, IBAT, TAMA and XTZ
- Their partnerships in industry – such as C+Charge’s partnership with Flowcarbon
Alongside those more academic points many crypto projects and their foundations have been involved in fighting climate change and deforestation – including Cardano and Near Protocol. Others projects choose to donate to charities such as the Red Cross.
Is Crypto Mining Eco Friendly?
In addition to our top eco friendly cryptos list above, it’s worth nothing that whether or not Bitcoin mining is bad for the environment is in itself not settled science.
Coinbase has contested in their own fact check blog post that calling Bitcoin mining environmentally unfriendly is not a fair label, stating:
‘While Bitcoin’s energy consumption is significant, that doesn’t automatically equate to it being a meaningful driver of climate change. Half of global crypto mining takes place in Sichuan, China, where excess hydroelectric power allows mining to be fueled by 95% renewable energy. 75% of miners already use renewable energy.’
Coinbase also cite the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, which found that Bitcoin’s environmental footprint is ‘marginal at best’.
Cato.org wrote a report ‘Why Bitcoin is Not an Environmental Disaster’ concluding that ecological criticisms of crypto are ‘much ado about nothing’.
Conclusion
There are many eco-friendly cryptos worth considering – some other environmentally friendly crypto projects that didn’t make it onto our top 10 list include Avalanche (AVAX), Solana (SOL), Flow (FLOW), Harmony (ONE), and Powerledger (POWR).
Some, however, may not be a good investment right now as their charts are currently in a bearish downtrend (e.g. Hedera Hashgraph, IOTA, Tezos, Nano) – eco-friendly cryptos don’t tend to generate a large amount of hype and buzz from retail investors. It can take years for the market to reflect their utility, use cases and applications in industry.
However, one new project yet to experience a bull cycle is not only eco-friendly but also actively attempting to solve the climate crisis – C+Charge. This project wants to push drivers away from fossil fuels and towards electric vehicles by offering EV drivers carbon credit rewards for recharging, as well as making it more efficient and convenient. The project has only just launched its presale and the C+Charge price predictions are exceptionally bullish.
A top alternative is IMPT, another carbon credit protocol which is now listed on multiple exchanges and expected to see big gains in 2023.
C+Charge - Next 10x Crypto with Real Life Utility
- Democratizing Carbon Credits
- Incentivizing Wider Adoption of EVs
- Real Life Use Case for Web3 Technology
- First Platform Allowing EV Owners to Earn Carbon Credits On or Off Chain
FAQs on Eco Friendly Cryptos
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Is Solana crypto eco friendly?
What is not an environmentally friendly crypto?
Has Elon Musk mentioned climate change and green crypto projects?
Read More:
- Best Utility Tokens to Buy in 2023 – Top Utility Tokens Revealed
- Best Cryptocurrency to Invest in 2023 – Which is the Best Crypto to Buy Now?
- Best Long Term Crypto Investments for 2023
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Matt Williams.
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