Solana Claims 1 Transaction Uses Less Energy Than 2 Google Searches

One Solana transaction consumes 1,837 Joules of energy, which is significantly lower than single Bitcoin and Ethereum transactions.

By Radhika Parashar | Updated: 29 November 2021 17:43 IST

Solana Claims 1 Transaction Uses Less Energy Than 2 Google Searches

Photo Credit: Solana

Solana launched its beta network in March 2020 and has emerged as a rival to Ethereum

Highlights

Solana transactions require 24 times less energy than charging a phone
Solana transaction uses 1,837 Joules of energy each time
One Bitcoin transaction consumes 6,995,592,000 Joules of energy

Solana transactions use very little energy as compared to its contemporaries, a new report from the blockchain platform states. As per its latest Energy Use Report, Solana claims two Google searches consume more energy than a single Solana transaction. The network unearthed that Solana transactions require 24 times less energy than charging a mobile phone for an hour consumes. The annual energy consumption on Solana is 3,186,000 Kilowatt-hour (kWh), the report says.

While one Solana transaction consumes 1,837 Joules of energy, two Google searches eat up 2,160 Joules of power, the report by Solana said. In terms of crypto, while one Bitcoin transaction consumes 6,995,592,000 Joules of energy, while a single Ethereum transaction gobbles 692,820,000 Joules.

“In total, the entire Solana network — with 1,196 validator nodes and an estimated 20,000,000 transactions — uses an estimated 3,186,000 kWh per year. This is the equivalent of the average electricity usage of 986 American households,” the study said.

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This report, establishing Solana is greener than other popular crypto networks, comes at a time several countries have expressed concerns about the high-energy demand of crypto activities.

Between January 1, 2016, and June 30, 2018, the mining operations for four major cryptocurrencies released up to an estimated 13 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

Earlier this month, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said it has foreseen a five-fold increment in energy loads that would be required to support the Bitcoin mining facilities cropping up in the state. Residents, at the time, had linked crypto-related activities to the major power outages they suffered in December last year, leading to hundreds of deaths due to cold.

In September, China imposed a blanket ban on crypto mining and trading.

Commenting on the move, Elon Musk had said, “part of it may actually be due to electricity shortages in many parts of China. A lot of South China right now is having random power outages because the power demand is higher than expected. Crypto mining might be playing a role in that”.

The Solana foundation has pledged that it will release regular reports on its energy consumption, while pro-actively making eco-friendly decisions in the development of the network.

Launched as a competitor to the Ethereum network, Solana launched its beta network in March 2020. Its native token is SOL, with an impressive market cap of $58,818,583,551 (roughly Rs. 4,41,580 crore), as per CoinMarketCap

Interested in cryptocurrency? We discuss all things crypto with WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty and WeekendInvesting founder Alok Jain on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Further reading: Solana, Cryptocurrency, Google, Google Search

Radhika Parashar

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Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More