In addition to eco-friendly components, the IMF recommended central banks to include other features in the CBDCs, such as compliance, higher resilience and offline capabilities.
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An International Monetary Fund (IMF) study on energy consumption revealed the importance of design choices within the crypto ecosystem to build an environmentally friendly mainstream payment system.
In the study entitled “Digital Currencies and Energy Consumption,” the IMF examined the energy consumption of crypto assets based on their distinct design elements to evaluate the ideal mechanism for developing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
Estimates of energy use (in kWh) per transaction for the core processing of different payment systems. Source: IMF
Sharing the groundwork for policy discussions around the environmental impacts of digital currencies, the IMF recommended moving away from proof-of-work (PoW)-based distributed ledger (DLT) applications, adding:
However, the international organization acknowledged the high energy efficiency brought about by non-PoW, permissioned crypto assets when compared to the traditional financial system:
Drawing a conclusion from the study, the IMF’s recommendation to the central banks is to “design CBDCs with the explicit goal to be environmentally friendly.” This means selecting platforms, hardware and design options with “a lower carbon footprint than the central banks’ legacy systems” right from the experimentation phase.
In addition to eco-friendly components, central banks were recommended to include other features in the CBDCs, such as compliance, higher resilience and offline capabilities.
The IMF also pointed out that the policymakers will consider the mainstreaming of crypto or CBDCs by weighing the environmental impact of the technology’s underlying design. In the study, IMF estimated that the annual energy consumption by the global payment system stands at 47.3 TWh — roughly matching the yearly consumption of economies like Portugal and Bangladesh.
Related: Iota Foundation joins Dell to develop real-time carbon footprint tracking
Joining in the cause to address climate change, the Iota Foundation, a nonprofit DLT ecosystem provider, partnered with Dell Technologies to develop a real-time carbon footprint tracking system.
We’ve partnered w/ @Iota, BioE, & @ClimateCHECK to develop real-time carbon footprint tracking through a #data confidence fabric!
Hear how #ProjectAlvarium accurately tracks carbon footprints w/ #DellTech Edge solutions.
https://t.co/u5CxmbMBAL@Intel #IOTA #Sustainability pic.twitter.com/52RENnEW3X
The initiative will bring about near-real-time tracking of carbon emissions from BioE’s sustainable energy and composting facility. Mathew Yarger, head of sustainability at the Iota Foundation, stated: