As the nonfungible tokens craze took off at the start of the year, many climate-conscious artists vocalized their disapproval of Ethereum’s energy consumption. In May, Elon Musk then derailed Bitcoin (BTC), citing the energy consumed by Bitcoin as cause for Tesla to withdraw its plans to accept BTC as payment for its electric cars. Both of these events have provoked a surge of debate from inside and outside the blockchain community. In particular, the arguments tend to focus on two areas: Bitcoin’s energy consumption and its dependency on climate-damaging fossil fuels versus renewables and, secondly, the benefits of one blockchain …

In her monthly Expert Take column, Selva Ozelli, an international tax attorney and CPA, covers the intersection between emerging technologies and sustainability, and provides the latest developments around taxes, AML/CFT regulations and legal issues affecting crypto and blockchain. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is holding its 76th annual meeting between Sept. 14 and 30 to bring countries together at a critical time for marshaling collective action to tackle the global environmental crisis, which has worsened the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Related: How will blockchain technology help fight climate change? Experts answer Ahead of the UNGA meeting, the latest report released …

Tom Baumann of the Climate Chain Coalition: Tom is the founder and co-chair of the Climate Chain Coalition, an open global initiative to advance collaboration on blockchain/DLT and digital solutions to enhance climate actions. “In general, digital solutions can be helpful tools to support a low-carbon economy. The World Economic Forum estimates that digital solutions can help achieve 15% of the Paris Agreement goals. These solutions can be used throughout the entire economy, creating smart grids and buildings, smart transportation, integrating with digital services and more. Digital tools could link sustainable production to sustainable consumption in a more efficient, equitable …

Accelerate Financial Technologies is planning to match each investment in its pending Bitcoin exchange-traded fund with the planting of thousands of trees. According to a Friday report from Bloomberg, the Calgary-based investment services company has pledged to plant 3,450 trees for every $1 million CAD — roughly $792,000 at the time of publication — invested in its Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund, or ETF. The move is part of Accelerate’s aim to have its Bitcoin ETF be carbon negative — that is, removing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than the energy required for Bitcoin mining and transactions would create. The …

Supply chain management platform VeChain has announced a new service for combining businesses to overhaul their carbon footprint data management practices. The new service, detailed in a Medium post on Thursday, combines decentralized ledger technology with a software-as-a-service (SaaS) business model. The Digital Carbon Footprint SaaS Service “allows enterprise users to log key data and integrate it with world-leading third party assurance providers within VeChain’s partnership network. This data can then be later transformed into new kinds of value and improve sustainability performance across the entirety of an organization.” In the announcement, VeChain cited obstacles with trust and transparency in …

Bitcoin (BTC) may be the last thing one might consider when thinking about ways to ensure a clean-energy future. This has especially become the case following a tweet sent by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk back in May, in which he stated that Tesla would stop accepting BTC payments due to the increasing usage of fossil fuels for mining. Yet raising awareness around the high energy costs typically associated with Bitcoin mining didn’t negatively impact the crypto ecosystem — in fact, it did just the opposite. Following Musk’s tweet, a number of cryptocurrency mining companies came out of the woodwork to …

Cryptocurrency mining company Argo Blockchain announced Tuesday that it has reached an important milestone in its climate strategy, sending a strong signal that environmental sustainability remains one of its primary focuses. The company claimed that its crypto operations have become “climate positive” for Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions. According to Carbon Trust, a global advocacy group for environmental sustainability, Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from a company’s owned or controlled sources; Scope 2 covers indirect emissions through the purchase of electricity; and Scope 3 includes all other indirect forms of emission that occur in a company’s …

Digital collectibles platform Terra Virtua has moved from the Ethereum blockchain to Polygon in an attempt to be greener. In a Monday announcement, Terra Virtua said it had switched to Polygon as part of a plan to create a more sustainable nonfungible token, or NFT, ecosystem. The platform claimed the move would reduce the energy necessary to create a single NFT by more than 99%. However, Terra Virtua will also remint all digital collectibles previously unsold on Ethereum in the move to Polygon. “Our mission is to revolutionise how audiences engage with NFTs and make them accessible to everyone, but …

Debates regarding the amount of energy required to mine Bitcoin (BTC) have been ongoing. While tech pioneers such as Elon Musk have recently mentioned that the crypto industry is headed toward a greener future, some academic researchers have noted that mining BTC consumes more power than that of small countries. While these arguments are still hotly debated, it has become clear that awareness of green crypto initiatives has been on the rise. For instance, some Bitcoin miners are now looking at nuclear power as a solution to remove carbon emission from the electricity leveraged to mine BTC. At the same …

Bitcoin mining company Greenidge Generation is planning to increase the number of renewable energy sources available for use in New York. In a Thursday announcement, Greenidge said it would be using the profits from its Bitcoin (BTC) miners in the Finger Lakes region of New York state to expedite the closure of a nearby coal ash landfill. The company plans to transform the Lockwood Hills site into a solar farm capable of generating 5 megawatts of power. Greenidge CEO Jeff Kirt said the project was “making more renewable energy a reality by leveraging Bitcoin mining profits to fund the creation …

An exchange-traded fund focusing on more environmentally friendly crypto mining operations and infrastructure has been launched in the United States. The new Viridi Cleaner Energy Crypto-Mining and Semiconductor ETF started trading on Tuesday, July 20, on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘RIGZ’. The product is part of growing efforts to attract mainstream investors with a focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Viridi Funds, which launched the new investment product, stated that the fund also invests in crypto mining infrastructure businesses and semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics, Nvidia Corp., and Advanced Micro Devices, according to …

The United Nations Global Compact, a nonbinding pact aimed at encouraging businesses to adopt sustainable, socially responsible policies, has accepted nonfungible token (NFT) and blockchain gaming platform Enjin as a participant. Enjin announced on Tuesday that it would be exploring ways to use NFTs to promote sustainability and equality as part of the UN pact. The company suggested using the technology to fight climate change by employing it in carbon-capture companies and reducing the global wealth gap by allowing creators around the world permissionless access to NFT markets. "While we are struggling to recover from the global pandemic and its …