Carbon-Neutral Distributed Ledger

Abstract

This work introduces a carbon-neutral approach for Distributed Ledger. With computationally intensive consensus models creating exceptional levels of wasted energy worldwide, it is crucial that distributed ledger technology progresses in a direction that alleviates this trend. This work offers both a novel consensus model and a user incentive that departs from the usage of computational processes for consensus. This work considers the need for longevity of distributed ledger and reflects the desires of the different user archetypes engaged in the recent upswing of cryptocurrency. We anticipate that some users engage for investment or growth speculation, some engage for transactional purposes, and others engage for analytics and transaction verification. We introduce a sustainable distributed ledger that provides engagement considerations for each archetype while eliminating wasteful side effects of computational proof-of-work algorithms. The incentive for contribution included for this novel distributed ledger is based on participation over time. This work shows the ability to incentivize each of the archetypes aligned for the purpose of maintaining ledger data and transactions over time. In the model introduced, the key user engagement focus is redirected from computational waste found in current cryptocurrencies to a model that incentivizes constant uptime to receive tokens released for use over time. In addition, we demonstrate that current incentive models which result in global energy waste are converted to a user incentive where all rewards are aligned to maintain continually available data storage.