You may have heard about the negative effects of Bitcoin on the environment, but the truth is that not all blockchain protocols are created the same. There are many that have very little environmental impact at all.
The key comes down to how the blockchain achieves consensus for which blocks to add to the blockchain. Bitcoin uses a Proof of Work (or PoW) consensus algorithm that requires energy intensive computers solving difficult math problems to come to consensus. However, there are other consensus mechanisms like Proof of Stake (which Ethereum is migrating to) or Proof of History (used by Solana), that do not involve the same type of energy intensive mining used by PoW based chains.
Besides those examples from public chains, there are a number of popular enterprise blockchain protocols like G0-Etherum, Hyperledger Fabric, Quorum, and Hyperledger Besu that use less energy intensive consensus algorithms including Proof of Authority, IBFT and Raft. These protocols are popular choices for companies looking to create blockchain-based solutions with energy usage comparable to any other modern web applications.
