Moving towards a greener economy takes time, and more importantly, will. Businesses and citizens are in their duty to become more environmentally friendly but they need an extra hand from other resources. Sadly, states and their governments do little about this and are actually showing more concern about strategic control and politics than giving a hand to a bleeding planet.

It seems the only hope left is technology. New tech development could help getting rid of fossil fuels, which are the main greenhouse gas emitter. Also, and without compromising current living standards, new tech could push economic ways where the environment would be an integral part of making business. In fact, we have relied so far on new processes that technology is a key part in the recently signed Paris Agreement.

One of those technology set to disrupt current economic manners is the blockchain. The distributed ledger technology is capable of change the game rules and breakthrough the system which has taken the world to its very edge.

Cryptocurrencies and smart-contracts are only a few examples were blockchain can be applied. In fact, blockchain is said by experts to be such disruptive not for just its ability to create money out of algorithms but for its Big Data potential.

Welcome to the greener blockchain

“With blockchains, supply-chain information from different economic sectors can be pooled into a global, trusted dataset that is fully interoperable. This level of specificity (and transparency) will make it possible to quantify specific environmental benefits – whether that’s clean jet fuels, green proteins or renewable power – and turn them into market commodities,” said The Wired expert Bernice Lee in a recently published article.

And she continues that “such data will be included in the “smart contracts” already supported by Ethereum, for instance, which provides a mechanism for exchange, not only of payments but also the life-cycle implications of production processes. That the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, an open-source blockchain alliance, has attracted companies such as BP, Microsoft and UBS also signals its readiness for widespread adoption.”

Big corporates are already using blockchains to optimise their complex supply chains. The same technology can also track and manage environmental performances and embed the information – whether carbon avoided or waters saved – in financial and other transactions. On the other end of the supply chain, this will give consumers greater confidence in buying green.

Blockchain main perks are about decentralized and transparency, which would make data-distortion extremely hard. On the same level of security are cryptocurrencies. Powered by this distributed ledger, same attributes applies.

Tackling the ‘Rebound Effect’

In fact, Bernice Lee predicts that in 2018 we will see the emergence of new Green Cryptocurrencies Built on the back of blockchain-enabled global datasets of environment-related life-cycle data. Armed with precise data, energy companies could be the first movers in 2018. Pilots abound for peer-to-peer energy transactions and trading platforms – especially where “prosumers” enter the market with rooftop solar power. The entry of these big players will change the markets, though it remains unclear who will win long-term.

And despite the power impact in cryptocurrency mining, these green cryptocurrencies will also provide a novel way of tackling the so-called “rebound effect”: when environmental benefits get cancelled out by changes in behaviour. It happens when, having cut our electricity bills through efficiency, we turn up the air conditioning or, more indirectly, when spare cash from less food waste at home goes into an extra holiday or more taxis.

“Rebound effects could be countered by offering consumers units of green cryptocurrencies as reward for efficiency savings, for example, which could be redeemed as payments for green electricity or other blockchain-verified environmental services – be it organic detergent, charging for electric vehicles or household insulation. Airlines could offer these same cryptocurrencies in place of more traditional offsets,” she added.

It seems clear that blockchain is part of the solution rather than a main issue. In fact, If all the hype cryptocurrencies and the distributed ledger grew last year can be put into practice for the greater good, it is definitely something to fight for.

The post The Rise of a Greener Crypto-Revolution appeared first on Intelligent Head Quarters.