Media, Entertainment and Sport

What's the environmental impact of blockchain gaming - and what can be done about it today

Blockchain gaming: on the greener side of the “emission spectrum"?

Blockchain gaming: on the greener side of the “emission spectrum"? Image: Business Insider.

Maxime Eyraud
Consulting Partner, Naavik
Abhimanyu Kumar
Co-Founder, Naavik
Moritz Baier-Lentz
Partner; Head, Gaming, Lightspeed Venture Partners
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blockchain gaming energy consumption
Energy consumption of Bitcoin mining versus other innovations Image: NYDIG.

blockchain gaming energy consumption
Bitcoin and energy consumption Image: Financial Times.
blockchain gaming energy consumption network difficulty
Network difficulty to mine a new block for blockchain. Image: Blockchain.com, as of May 9th, 2022.
blockchain gaming Bitcoin electronic waste generation
Bitcoin electronic waste generation. Image: Digiconomist.

So what is it about blockchain gaming that consumes energy?
So what is it about blockchain gaming that consumes energy? Image: DeFi Kingdoms.
Blockchain gaming accounted for 112 million in transactions, the highest among the listed categories.
Blockchain gaming accounted for 112 million in transactions, the highest among the listed categories. Image: Naavik.

bitcoin gaming energy consumption Etherium
The Ethereum Foundation expects PoS will reduce the network's energy consumption by 99.5%. Image: Ethereum Foundation.
blockchain gaming yearly carbon footprint
Yearly carbon footprint of PoS networks compared to a roundtrip flight in business class. Image: CCRI.

blockchain gaming
Image: Solana.
Comparison of CO2 emissions of Bitcoin transactions with that from one US home, one Ethereum transaction, etc.
Comparison of CO2 emissions of Bitcoin transactions with that from one US home, one Ethereum transaction, etc. Image: Polygon.

blockchain gaming ethereum supernet
Image: Polygon.

Bitcoin production environmental friendly coal blockchain gaming
The reason why renewables aren’t more prevalent is simple: Bitcoin production historically was “mainly located in areas using the least environmentally-friendly source, coal. Image: 3rd Global Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Study, Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance.

Image: KlimaDAO as of April 21st, 2022.

blockchain gaming
Galaxy Digital’s mining arm's research report aptly titled “A Quantitative Approach to a Subjective Question”) showed that Bitcoin’s energy consumption at the time was still far below that of both the banking system and gold. Image: Galaxy Digital Mining.
Image: Statista.

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