Future of Media, Entertainment and Sport

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

Jun 29, 2022

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

Moritz Baier-Lentz

Partner and Head of Gaming, Lightspeed Venture Partners

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Energy consumption of Bitcoin mining versus other innovations Image: NYDIG.

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? Image: DeFi Kingdoms.

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.

Image: Solana.

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

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.

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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