The Positive Environmental Impact of Masternode Technology
By: Sam Wilkinson
Tags: Crypto, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Indx, Masternodes

Over the last few years, coral reefs have started to die. Following a 2016 heatwave, it’s estimated that a third of the Great Barrier Reef was bleached due to warming waters around Australia. Because of issues like this, plans are being put into place in every sector to do what can be done to help.

And in blockchain, those plans are Masternodes.

What do Masternodes mean for the environment?

By using a staking system such as Masternodes, currencies can use far less computing power to process transactions, whilst keeping the security features inherent to blockchain intact.

Despite the fact that servers can use up to 1,200W of power an hour in datacenters, because of the lesser number of Masternode servers, this actually equates to far less power. Currently Dash has approved around 4,100 Masternodes since its launch in 2015, which roughly equates to 4,920,000W of power used per hour if all masternodes are considered to be servers.

No true estimate exists to quantify the number of miners on Proof of Work (PoW) networks but Nvidia recently pointed to their sale of 3 million graphics cards used for cryptocurrency mining. The average computer uses between 300W and 500W of power, but cards used for cryptocurrency mining such as the GTX 1080ti can consume nearly 300W of power by themselves.

If we take a conservative estimate of 200W per card, these cards are consuming around 600,000,000W per hour. And these are only cards bought from Nvidia (other manufacturers exist) in 2017, measured at a conservative estimate, not including any additional computer power drawn for cooling. This is also taking into account only GPU-powered mining systems and not ASIC or other mining setups worldwide.

Further than this, it was recently reported that the Bitcoin blockchain alone uses as much power as Ireland year-on-year.

In short, PoW consumes significant amounts of power in comparison to Masternodes.

So how do Masternodes have the capacity to change the world?

Simply put, PoW is unsustainable, so Masternodes and Proof of Stake (PoS) will have to step in.

Not only are energy prices rising, but 80% of Bitcoin is already mined, meaning that as soon as the magical 21 million BTC number is hit, the only way to make money from the blockchain will be through transaction fees levied by the nodes. And eventually, based on their blockchain architecture, other PoW coins will follow suit.

Furthermore, PoW system’s architecture dictates that at certain points, the reward number of coins received from mining halves.

If miners can no longer receive coins as a prize, or receive far fewer, and have to rely on transaction fees, their return on investment (ROI) drops considerably.

This is already causing certain currencies to roadmap a change to PoS and Masternode systems.

The most notable of these currencies is Ethereum, who are currently looking to move into a hybrid model with some sources saying that a complete migration to a PoS system is only a year or two away.

PoS and Masternodes also open up possibilities of entirely new efficiency based platforms, such as EnergyCoin, a fully green-focused platform where users can present energy certificates to redeem coins.

Things are Changing

As these systems become more commonplace, we should expect to see power usage across currencies make a significant decline. This is not only because it makes financial sense to use Masternodes and PoS as blockchain becomes more mainstream, but because the environment will thank us in the long run, and that in itself is marketable.

Masternodes and PoS systems have proven they are a necessary evolution of the blockchain model. They have the backing of some of the biggest names in cryptocurrency and the adoption of the technology is well on the way.

So, despite the loss of some of our coral reefs, which are still yet to bounce back, it’s good to see the blockchain community get behind a method that’s not only financially and logistically viable but much more ecologically friendly.

One currency and one blockchain at a time.

INDX is an index-linked crypto fund that gives retail and institutional investors access to the passive income benefits from cryptocurrency Masternodes. For more information on INDX, check out our website and register for future updates here.