- Algorand (ALGO-USD) — The largest layer-1 network leading the green crypto charge
- Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR-USD) — A highly-scalable competitor with multiple climate initiatives
- Stellar (XLM-USD) — Forgoes proof-of-work and proof-of-stake entirely in favor of less energy-consumptive methods
Earth Day is fast approaching, and crypto projects are using the holiday as a platform to announce their eco-conscious goals. In general, the crypto industry creates a lot of waste. Proof-of-work crypto mining uses up over 90 terawatt hours of electricity per year. That’s enough energy to completely power some nations for an entire year. As a result, events like Earth Day are great opportunities to highlight attempts to address the energy use of crypto-related activities.
The first project to use the upcoming holiday as a publicity stunt is Algorand. The project, which associates very closely with the goals of climate activists, is using Earth Day to shed light on its goals to make the blockchain green. It will be doing this by renting a Times Square billboard; on Earth Day, the billboard will be plastered with a call to action for building a greener future. The billboard will also be powered down for an hour to exemplify Algorand’s dedication to its mission.
As the crypto market continues to seek out ways to reduce its wastefulness, there are several projects that are leading the charge. Consider these green cryptos to buy for your portfolio:
| ALGO-USD | Algorand | 73 cents |
| HBAR-USD | Hedera Hashgraph | 19 cents |
| XLM-USD | Stellar Lumen | 20 cents |
Best Green Cryptos to Buy: Algorand (ALGO-USD)
Algorand is perhaps the project best associated with making the blockchain more eco-friendly, making it one of the best green cryptos to buy. The layer-1 protocol is planning to be the greenest network in the world.
The Algorand network launched in 2019 and has grown in popularity in just the last year. Much of this growth comes from just how well Algorand can process transactions; the network is capable of processing over 1,200 transactions per second.
In April 2021, though, the project began to lean hard into eco-consciousness. This happened around the time when Elon Musk flip-flopped on Bitcoin (BTC-USD) payments for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and sparked a still-ongoing conversation about crypto’s energy use. Algorand announced at the time that it had gone fully carbon neutral, making it an appealing alternative to proof-of-work coins.
The project has continued to usher in new climate initiatives in its quest to decarbonize crypto. Most recently, it pledged $15 million to climate non-profit Climate Ride.
Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR-USD)
Hedera Hashgraph is a close competitor to Algorand. Both networks are robust dapp platforms that seek to serve as many users as possible with broad offerings and high performance. And like Algorand, Hedera has plenty of climate initiatives on its side to make it one of the most green cryptos to buy.
The Hedera network is not a blockchain project. Technically speaking, it uses its own distributed ledger technology called hashgraphs. These hashgraphs don’t bundle data into blocks, instead using events and timestamps to process and organize data.
The technology is capable of processing over 10,000 transactions per second, and it can process these transactions using a fraction of the energy that many blockchain networks require. Moreover, Hedera developers hold patents for this technology; Hedera is the only platform authorized to utilize this wildly efficient technology. With this in mind, it certainly stands to benefit from the push for more eco-conscious cryptos.
Best Green Cryptos to Buy: Stellar (XLM-USD)
Stellar operates a bit differently than Algorand or Hedera Hashgraph. It functions as a point-to-point transaction service with an emphasis on streamlining international wire transfers. It is the product of Ripple expatriate Jed McCaleb.
With the Stellar network, one can instantly transact fiat currency through the XLM coin. Sending money abroad is as easy as exchanging fiat for XLM, sending it to the receiver’s address, and then exchanging XLM for fiat once more. Institutions and individuals alike can use Stellar’s services. And, institutions can even implement their own tokens for use on the network.
Stellar sets itself apart by foregoing not only energy-intensive proof-of-work proofs, but also proof-of-stake consensuses. Instead, it opts for a tech called Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP), which allows transactions to be verified by a handful of provenly trustworthy nodes, rather than requiring the whole network to review a transaction. This allows Stellar to provide not only much faster settlement times, but a much lower energy output.
On the date of publication, Brenden Rearick did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
