Solana Launches Live Carbon Emissions Tracker

The Solana Foundation and the data platform Trycarbonara have revealed that the Solana blockchain will soon have a way to measure carbon pollution. A blog post from the foundation says that this is the first “major smart-contract blockchain” that can measure carbon pollution in real-time.

By sharing this information, the Solana Foundation hopes to set a new standard in the blockchain environment for figuring out how much carbon is being released. The new monitor can be found on the website for Solana Climate. Indicators there show, among other things, the total number of nodes, megawatt-hours, average total carbon pollution, and marginal usage.

On the new screen, users can see side-by-side examples of how using Solana compares to a range of other tasks that produce emissions. According to the graph, using one gallon of oil is the same as doing 140,416.67 transactions on the Solana blockchain, while doing a Google search only takes 0.25 transactions.

The Solana Foundation’s real-time carbon pollution gauge is based on the expected carbon impact of the Dell PowerEdge R940 and runs on open-source data. It’s not clear if other blockchain groups will set up similar tracking systems, but this move by the Solana Foundation comes at the same time as more global efforts to use blockchain technology to keep track of carbon emissions.

As part of its “Shaping Europe’s Digital Future” initiative, the European Commission, a politically independent branch of the European Union’s executive that works with the European Council, has praised blockchain’s ability to serve as a foundation for the accurate measurement of carbon emissions in any industry.

In a post on the EU’s digital strategy blog, the commission said, “Blockchain can be used with smart contracts to more accurately calculate, track, and report on the reduction of carbon footprint across the entire value chain.”

In the United States, President Joe Biden recently suggested spending plans that would put a 30% tax on the power used to mine Bitcoin.