Cloud providers need to report to their customers what carbon emissions have arisen from their use of computing resources, so that customers can include them in their own mandated emissions reporting. At present, these reports are neither verifiable nor audited. We show how a data centre operator can produce cryptographic zero-knowledge proofs to each customer that the emissions reported to that customer are accurate, without the customer being able to learn sensitive information about the data centre operator or other customers. Our approach is scalable, costing a data centre operator with one million customers an estimated $150 USD per month plus $0.01 USD for each customer who requests a verifiable emissions report. For customers, a proof is 37 KiB in size, and verifying it takes less than a second. By making emissions reports more trustworthy, we hope to give companies and policymakers the data they need to push towards decarbonisation.
Abstract Software development plays a central role in digital sustainability, yet developers’ role and engagement remains understudied. Here we analyse nearly a decade of developer discussions available on the code repository Github on Ethereum, a widely used open-source blockchain platform. Using topic modelling, with interpretation supported by large language models and a sustainability framework for software systems, we trace how economic, environmental, social, individual, and technical sustainability themes emerge and evolve over time. We find that sustainability awareness, particularly related to energy efficiency and cost, intensifies during key events such as the transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake consensus, which substantially reduced energy use. We identify influential contributors and thematic specialisation, providing a transferable framework for understanding sustainability in emerging developer communities. These findings highlight the role of developer discourse in shaping sustainable software ecosystems and integrating sustainability into open-source development.
This report presents an updated assessment of the environmental footprint of Ethereum several years after the network transitioned from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake. Produced by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) at Cambridge Judge Business School, the research advances earlier analyses by executing a bottom-up infrastructural audit. Rather than relying on theoretical assumptions, it maps the physical infrastructure of the network: where the nodes sit, the exact hardware configurations they run on, and the specific carbon intensity of the grids that power them. The result is a highly granular, empirical estimate of the electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of Ethereum. By establishing this definitive baseline, the report provides a transparent foundation for understanding the contemporary environmental profile of the network and how it may evolve.
This deliverable describes the technical foundations and integration approach of the EU‑DREAM Data Management Platform, developed under Task 3.4 between M4 and M18. The platform acts as the central layer enabling secure, consistent, and reliable data exchange across the EU‑DREAM ecosystem, connecting components such as the Data Platform, Digital Twins, Distributed Ledger Technology, NLP‑based intermediator, and other energy applications. It defines the overall architecture in line with industry best practices, European recommendations, and earlier system designs, while detailing the operation of key components including identity and access management, API gateways, and DevOps‑based deployment environments. The deliverable also introduces a reference infrastructure to support integration with external systems such as sensors, energy management systems, IoT devices, external databases, and Living Labs. Designed to be modular, scalable, and replicable, the platform allows components to evolve independently while enabling consistent deployment across multiple locations and use cases.
A lack of data security and interoperability are significant challenges in low-carbon building design due to the involvement of numerous architects, engineers, and carbon auditors. This study proposes a novel framework that integrates blockchain, building information modelling (BIM), and life cycle assessment (LCA) to enhance data management and decision-making for low-carbon building design. Blockchain, as a distributed ledger, ensures data security by maintaining an immutable record of architectural design changes, energy system configurations, and carbon footprints. BIM visualises all the design information in a three-dimensional model to ensure real-time updates of energy and carbon performance. LCA assesses the trade-off between embodied carbon and operating carbon emissions across a building’s life span, optimising architectural and energy system design decisions. The proposed framework establishes a secure and transparent workflow by integrating blockchain, BIM, and LCA into an iterative design process. Smart contracts facilitate the automatic verification of design parameters, enabling architects and engineers to adjust their designs when carbon footprint targets and energy-saving requirements are unmet. Additionally, the framework incorporates a database of future weather profiles, material properties, and inventory information to support accurate and informed decision-making. This study enhances data security, improves interoperability and supports the iterative refinement of low-carbon building designs. The framework was validated on an industrial building project, demonstrating its effectiveness in designing low-carbon buildings and its potential to contribute to global net-zero ambitions. By offering a structured approach to integrating blockchain, BIM, and LCA, this study offers valuable insights for practitioners and researchers in the architecture, engineering, and construction industries.
Haya R. Hasan, Khaled Salah, Ahmad Mayyas, Ahmad Musamih · 7 authors
Greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprints have surged dramatically, with the transportation industry being a major contributor. While the UN aims to adopt zero-emission vehicles by 2040, the demand for electric vehicles (EVs) raises sustainability concerns about sourcing earth metals for batteries. Digital passports have emerged to track a product’s lifecycle, composition, certifications, origin, and recyclability. However, existing EV battery passport systems lack sufficient traceability, immutability, auditability, and are prone to manipulation due to their centralized nature. In this paper, we propose a decentralized blockchain-based digital passport for EV batteries using composable Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) to ensure traceable, tamper-proof records that promote transparency across the supply chain. Our solution enables standardized data sharing and interoperability while integrating off-chain storage for efficiency. We evaluate four cathode chemistries using ten sustainability Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to compute an overall sustainability score per battery. We present a system architecture, smart contracts, and supporting algorithms are presented, with testing and validation in a simulated environment. A cost and security analysis confirms affordability and resilience against known attacks. Our approach offers practical value for sustainability assessments, regulatory audits, carbon footprint tracking, and circular economy initiatives by providing immutable, component-level provenance and real-time KPI updates. Limitations include simulation-based validation, lack of stakeholder testing, and scalability challenges in live deployments. While we address some of these, via Layer 2 scaling and modular smart contract design, further research is required to validate adoption in real-world EV supply chains. The smart contract code is made publicly available on GitHub.
Alexandre Pires Barbosa, Rodrigo Pereira dos Santos
O aquecimento global é o maior desafio da humanidade e a ciência da computação tem papel central na escalabilidade de soluções de impacto social. Organizações autônomas descentralizadas (do inglês, decentralized autonomous organization or DAO) se refere a um tema emergente que vem ganhando destaque devido ao crescimento de iniciativas colaborativas. Este trabalho propõe a investigação de governança descentralizada em ecossistemas de inovação social, com objetivo de acelerar a mitigação das emissões de gases de efeito estufa por meio da participação social. Potenciais modelos como artefatos resultantes podem estabelecer diretrizes e expressar relacionamentos entre os envolvidos para orquestrar diferentes interações por meio das DAO.
James Evans, Davide Cassanmagnago, Tathagata Chatterji, Andrew Irvin · 10 authors
Urban innovation has emerged as a priority to address global climate and sustainability goals. As the world continues to urbanise, global organisations are encouraging cities to spearhead innovation to meet global carbon reduction targets and reduce inequalities (UN Habitat, 2022). Finding new ways to build, manage and live in cities is critical to provide all humans with adequate nutrition, shelter, access to products and services including mobility, leisure, health, energy, and education (UN, 2023). Focusing on the potential role of urban innovation is logical -cities drive innovation by bringing diverse people, knowledge and resources together (Florida et al., 2018). In many ways urbanisation represents the manifestation of new technologies and forms of social organisation, from the hydraulic cities of Mesopotamia 7000 years ago through to industrial and post-industrial cities today (Jacobs, 1969;Athey et al., 2008). However, while the link between cities and innovation is longstanding, the idea of 'urban innovation' as a specific activity to discover new ways to develop, manage and inhabit cities in more sustainable ways is recent, distinct and less familiar. This framing of urban innovation reflects established approaches to governance for sustainability, layered over the distinctive characteristics and capabilities of cities. In this paper we define urban innovation as a directed activity that takes place in and is driven by cities as a way to address local challenges that will contribute to the delivery of global climate and sustainability goals. The emergence of the urban innovation as an influential global policy agenda pushes cities once more to the front of the battle against climate change. This paper examines the emergence of urban innovation as a discrete and influential policy goal to deliver global climate and sustainability goals and outlines a research agenda to help achieve this.The paper is authored with leading global organisations in this space -the United Nations Climate Change Global Innovation Hub and the Global Covenant of Mayors. The United Nations is the leading global organisation coordinating international action on key challenges including climate change. The United Nations Global Innovation Hub for Climate Change promotes innovation as a catalyst for achieving global climate and sustainability targets. Their first global dialogue series focused on cities specifically because of their potential to integrate technological, social, and policy innovations. The Global Innovation Hub emphasizes systemic approaches to urban innovation, fostering cross-sectoral collaboration and community engagement to create sustainable, climate resilient development in urban environments. The Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM) represents an alliance of more than 13,000 cities combatting climate change. Through its Innovate4Cities initiative, launched in 2019 in response to the Edmonton Cities and Climate Change Science Conference (Oke et al., 2022), the GCoM alliance outlines the knowledge gaps and action priorities for urban innovation, research and implementation, sharing data and best practices, and unlocking financing for scalable urban innovation projects. Both work closely with the Mission Innovation Urban Transitions Mission, which launched at COP 26 in 2021. This organisation empowers cities worldwide in their transition towards net-zero, resilient, and people-centred cities, mobilizing decision-makers across all levels of government to prioritize pathways enabled by clean energy and systemic innovation across all sectors and in urban governance (Urban Transitions Mission, 2024). The Urban Transitions Mission develops innovation systems capable of transforming cities to address climate change, including a focus on coordinating city level research and innovation challenges (European Commission, 2022).These organisations form part of a Global Innovation Alliance (GIA), which is engaging cities and relevant partners to build a worldwide urban innovation policy agenda for climate and sustainability goals. This policy agenda is complemented by the Global Research and Action Agenda on Cities and Climate Change Science, which provides a cross-sectoral, systems-based foundation for knowledge to enable urban innovation. This document launched at the Cities and Climate Change Science Conference in Edmonton, Canada in 2018, and in its latest iteration following the 2024 Innovate4Cities Conference, serves as an evidence base for the knowledge and innovation outputs being co-created by researchers, governments, businesses, and civil society (Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, UN-Habitat & University of Melbourne, 2024). These initiatives demonstrate the growing ambition for science to inform action and facilitates the exchange of knowledge to support stronger and more ambitious urban solutions and partnerships.The priorities and initiatives of these international organisations individually and collectively show that urban innovation has become central to the delivery of global climate and sustainability goals at multiple levels of governance. Urban innovation is being promoted as a way to develop solutions to challenges in sectors ranging from energy and transport to housing and social justice. By cutting across domains, and more closely engaging economic and knowledge production, urban innovation represents an exciting new way to create more sustainable cities. However, as Bai (2024) notes in relation to the potential of cities to deliver the SDGs, action on the ground requires clarity of roles. The term 'urban innovation' is used widely now in policy and research, but in different ways by different groups to mean different things, not necessarily with sustainability or justice and equity as core values. Realising the potential of urban innovation to deliver climate and sustainability goals requires greater clarity in defining what exactly it is, how it should be done in practice, and who is supposed to be doing it. Given the political weight and resource behind it, researchers have an important role to play in helping to ensure that urban innovation is an equitable and effective. Addressing rather than exacerbating inequalities and making sure successful innovations are actually transformative lie at the forefront of this challenge. This Grand Challenge article builds upon the high levels of current ambition and activity associated with key international initiatives like the Global Innovation Alliance and Global Research and Action Agenda on Cities and Climate Change Science to frame a broad and inclusive research agenda for sustainable cities and urban innovation.Innovation relates to the development of new services, products or processes that generate value through being of use to customers or users. The concept of innovation was arguably first framed as a place-based agenda in scholarship and policies relating to regional innovation clusters. These often developed near universities, most famously in the case of the Silicon Valley innovation cluster in California that grew up around Stanford University. The focus was on supply-side technology development though, with little consideration of the demands of cities and their residents. The emergence of the idea of smart cities in the early Twenty-First Century dramatically changed this, positioning innovation as a key element of place-making. Urban innovation became an activity focusing on how to deploy digital technologies to improve cities and urban services (Angelidou, 2015). Successful examples include the replacement of traditional incandescent bulbs with LED for street lighting, and the adoption of digital information and payment platforms for citizens to engage with municipal authorities. Evidence suggests that cities investing in smart city projects tend to generate economic benefits associated with traditional innovation, gauged through measures such as numbers of patent filings (Caragliu and Del Bo, 2019). A rapidly growing body of work from China suggests a correlation between the innovative capacity of cities and their environmental performance (see for example Tan, et al., 2022;Yang, et al., 2022;Guo, et al., 2023). Work in this context has also identified a positive relationship between the existence of a digital economy and the achievement of low carbon transitions in larger Chinese cities (Liu et al., 2024). However, it is the distinct idea of urban innovation as a directed process that brings different stakeholders together to develop solutions to problems in their own cities that has gained traction beyond smart cities. In relation to environmental policy, the need for practical action to complement international commitments on climate change and sustainable development, coupled with the emergence of world cities as major political actors (Bulkeley, 2013), has provided fertile ground for urban innovation to emerge as a potential driver of societal change. Urban innovation represents the culmination of a longer-term metamorphosis of cities from being framed as sources of sustainability problems to sources of sustainability solutions (Angelo and Wachsmuth, 2020). In principle, urban innovation offers a way to situate and address the United Nation Sustainable Development the context of cities and 2024). 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Open access
Smart Cities and Technologies
Innovative Approaches in Technology and Social Development
This paper reviews the emerging literature on blockchain, structuring key insights in a conceptual framework and setting out a research agenda from a socio-technical and information systems (IS) perspective. The review covers 234 blockchain-focused papers across IS, management, computer science and related fields. It categorises blockchain use into three main types and reframes blockchain use within the socio-technical phenomena of which it is a part. This broader framework enables us to aggregate, integrate and synthesise knowledge about blockchain, its values, drivers and barriers, social and technical subsystem(s), as well as potential consequences, both intended and unintended. Using this framework as a basis for analysis, we identify gaps in the existing blockchain literature and outline a research agenda for advancing blockchain studies within the IS field.
Hossein Naderi, Alireza Shojaei, Mohammad Hossein Heydari
Building energy efficiency programs face significant challenges in performance monitoring and occupant engagement, which hinder the achievement of sustainability goals in the built environment. Traditional systems often suffer from intermediary-dependent workflows, insufficient transparency, and reliability issues, leading to conflicts among stakeholders and reduced occupant participation. This study proposes a blockchain-enabled solution that leverages Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) to improve the transparency, reliability, and traceability of performance monitoring systems. By integrating Digital Twin (DT) technology, blockchain, and a token marketplace, the platform not only enhances monitoring capabilities but also incentivizes occupants to adopt energy-efficient behaviors through Fungible Token (FT) rewards. A proof-of-concept prototype was developed using a synthetic case study, demonstrating the feasibility, cost efficiency, and scalability of the framework. The findings emphasize the importance of network selection for wider blockchain adoption. This transparent and immutable framework addresses key challenges in energy performance monitoring, offering a foundation for advancing sustainability in the built environment.
The design of Web3 applications presents unique challenges due to their complex technical requirements. Despite the increasing spread of this technology, there is a notable lack of comprehensive, empirically grounded design guidelines for developing user-friendly Web3 interfaces. This study addresses this gap through a systematic three-phase approach: (1) developing initial guidelines from a literature review and industry sources (n = 31), (2) conducting evaluations using a 14-point framework based on the initial guidelines to test its effectiveness across diverse Web3 applications (n = 25), and (3) validating refined guidelines through expert evaluation sessions (n = 7). Expert evaluations highlighted the need for task-oriented rather than category-based organization of design principles. Based on these findings, we developed a structured framework organizing guidelines into four key task flows, each with three implementation levels. The framework emphasizes progressive disclosure of blockchain concepts, integrated user education, and clear state visualization. Our findings contribute to academic discussion and industry practice by providing empirically validated patterns for Web3 interface design. This study lays a foundation for creating more accessible and user-friendly decentralized applications, though future work should focus on longitudinal validation and adaptation to emerging technologies.
A user-friendly program called “Mini Wallet for Sending Ethers” was created to make utilizing private keys to send ethers (ETH) between wallets easier. This application, which prioritizes user-friendliness, enables users to connect to their Ethereum wallets—including well-known choices like MetaMask— via the Infura API. It enables customers to effectively manage their Ethereum transactions by reducing crypto currency transactions to a few clicks, doing away with a requirement to browse complicated wallet interfaces. Notably, the program guarantees the security and integrity of transactions by adhering to accepted block chain transaction protocols. The pertinent information is safely entered into a database following every transaction, creating a complete record of all transactions. Furthermore, the sender has easy access to details about the transaction, which improves Ethereum transactions’ accountability and transparency. For Ethereum aficionados looking for a hassle-free method to handle their crypto currency transactions, this cutting-edge technology offers an effective and user-friendly option.
Information Communication Technologies, Deniz Salucu, Tunga Sayıcı, Information Communication Technologies
The rapid rise of adoption of digital identity presents a transformative opportunity to eliminate resource-intensive physical identity systems, no longer requiring printed cards, plastic credentials, or in-person office visits, thereby substantially reducing carbon footprints. This paper introduces a comprehensive Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) model built upon Hyperledger Indy, enabling end users to securely store and manage their identities directly on personal devices. We explore two different enrollment methods: QR code-based digital credential issuance and NFC-powered chip-based identity verification, further enhanced through zero-knowledge proofs and verifiable credential protocols. The ecological advantages are emphasized through the eradication of physical identity artifacts and associated administrative processes, advancing the field of green digital technologies in support of ecological preservation and sustainable identity infrastructures.
Abstract The classical pathway of mass production followed a linear model with trashed products and wasted remaining materials at the final stage of their life cycle. Smart approaches of manufacturing and product life cycle management aim for Circular Economy (CE) models to implement sustainable business models to overcome imbalances between resource supply and demand of goods. Non-Fungible Token (NFT) solutions together with smart contracts seem to have the potential to realise such new sustainable business models in the context of CE. The study demonstrates how NFT technology can become an integral part of smart product life cycle management for batteries of e-cars. The research highlights how circular business models can be developed and implemented in the e-car sector around the life cycle management of batteries as well as how NFT technology can contribute to sustainable conceptualisation for battery recycling.
This paper has two equally important research objectives. The first aim of the research is to identify key research areas addressed in scientific publications that simultaneously relate to blockchain, energy, and sustainability. In turn, the identification of green research areas in these publications is the second research aim. The indicated research aims were achieved on the basis of a bibliometric review of 205 scientific publications from 2017-2023 (Scopus database). By means of a systematic literature review, 25 different key research areas were identified. In turn, the classic literature review identified 18 green research areas (e.g. green blockchain). At the same time, no green issue was identified as a key research area. The results can inspire researchers looking for research gaps around blockchain and sustainability issues. Among the recommendations for stakeholders, the need for further research around blockchain technology, the development of a regulatory framework, or educational issues were highlighted.
Abstract Purpose Blockchain has the potential to bring numerous benefits to life cycle assessment (LCA), such as traceability, transparency, and accurate inventory data and assessment results. Consequently, there has been a gradual emergence of research focusing on the integration of blockchain and LCA in recent years. The aim of this study is to provide an up-to-date and comprehensive state of research on blockchain-LCA integration. Methods This study undertook a systematic review of published articles on blockchain-LCA integration, analyzing the papers indexed so far in the Web of Science and SCOPUS. Thirty-one articles were identified, on which a bibliometric analysis was carried out. Furthermore, this study extracted and synthesized the data for the themes of benefits, barriers, frameworks and models, and case studies, and conducted detailed analysis for each theme. Results and discussion The results indicated that the current state of research in this field is still in its early stages. Most articles proposed various potential benefits across different stages of the integration. However, the integration faced various technical, organizational, and system-related barriers. Only a limited number of articles presented frameworks, models, and case studies. Currently, there is a significant lack of case studies rooted in real-world data. Based on the results of the review, this study offered relevant suggestions for future development of the blockchain-LCA integration. Additionally, this study proposed a novel and practical generic framework to provide guidance for the continued advancement in this field. Conclusion This work reveals that the number of studies of blockchain-LCA integration is increasing, but this field is still in the early stages. Many potential benefits and barriers to the integration were proposed, but most of them lack validation within the existing research. In particular, there is a great need for real-world case studies.
The role of prosumers who are consumers who produce, store, and consume energy is vital to the uptake of renewable energies in Local Energy Communities (LEC). However, the integration of prosumers in the smart grid to facilitate bidirectional flows of energy and information depends on intelligent operations of energy systems and flexible structures of the existing energy markets. But existing energy trading mechanisms are faced with issues of trust, privacy, security, and energy pricing determination. Also, there are fewer studies based on a citizen-centric prosumer approach. Thus, there is need to provide reliable solutions that addresses the aforementioned challenges faced by prosumers in LEC. Advancements in disruptive technologies, such as Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT) have transformed a broad spectrum of intelligent systems in smart cities. Therefore, this study examines the integration of AI and IoT as AIoT and DLT towards a citizen-centric prosumer approach for decentralized energy markets trading. Additionally, this article develops an architectural model for energy prosumption in LEC using design science approach based on a user-centred design method that shows a possible implementation concept to support energy sharing and trading in LEC. The architectural model supports trust, data privacy, security, and energy pricing determination using AI and smart contracts to provides real-time energy trading monitoring, easy access, control, and immutable logs to unearth underlying energy demand and supply patterns thereby supporting citizen-centric prosumer approach. Finally, a use case scenario of DLT and AIoT for prosumption operations is presented. • Integrates AIoT and DLT towards a citizen-centric prosumer approach for decentralized energy markets trading. • Develops an architectural model for energy prosumption using design science approach based on a user-centred design method. • Supports trust, data privacy, security, and energy pricing determination using AIoT and smart contracts. • Employs AIoT for real-time energy demand and supply patterns for energy trading monitoring, control, and decision support. • Models a possible implementation concept to support energy sharing and trading in local energy communities.
Mark C. Ballandies, Valentin Holzwarth, Barry Sunderland, Evangelos Pournaras · 5 authors
Abstract Organizations have to adjust to changes in the ecosystem, and customer feedback systems (CFS) provide important information to adapt products and services to changing customer preferences. However, current systems are limited to single-dimensional rating scales and are subject to self-selection biases. The work contributes design principles for CFS and implements a CFS that advances current systems by means of contextualized feedback according to specific organizational objectives. The authors apply Design Science Research (DSR) methodology and report on a longitudinal DSR journey considering multiple stakeholder values by utilizing value-sensitive design methods. They conducted expert interviews, design workshops, demonstrations, and a four-day experiment in an organizational setup, involving 132 customers of a major Swiss library. In the process, the identified design principles and the implemented software artifact were validated qualitatively and quantitatively, leading to conclusions for their efficient instantiation. The authors found that i) blockchain technology can afford four design principles of effective CFS. Also, ii) combining DSR with value-sensitive design methods explicitly provides rationale for design principles in the form of identified important values. Moreover, iii) combining DSR with value-sensitive design methods makes the construction of software artifacts more efficient it terms of design time by restricting the design space of a software artifact to those options that align with stakeholder values. The findings of this work thus extend the knowledge about the design of CFS and offer both researchers a theoretical contribution to reasoning about design principles and managers and decision makers a guide for the efficient design of software artifacts.
In an era dominated by the Internet of Things, ensuring the longevity and sustainability of IoT devices has emerged as a pressing concern. This study explores the various complex difficulties which contributed to the early decommissioning of IoT devices and suggests methods to improve their lifespan management. By examining factors such as security vulnerabilities, user awareness gaps, and the influence of fashion-driven technology trends, the paper underscores the need for legislative interventions, consumer education, and industry accountability. Additionally, it explores innovative approaches to improving IoT longevity, including the integration of sustainability considerations into architectural design through requirements engineering methodologies. Furthermore, the paper discusses the potential of distributed ledger technology, or blockchain, to promote transparent and decentralized processes for device provisioning and tracking. This study promotes a sustainable IoT ecosystem by integrating technology innovation, legal change, and social awareness to reduce environmental impact and enhance resilience for the digital future
Elitsa Pankovska, Ashish Rajendra Sai, Harald Vranken, Alan Ransil
The high electricity consumption of cryptocurrencies that rely on proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithms has raised serious environmental concerns due to its association with carbon emissions and strain on energy grids. There has been significant research into estimating the electricity consumption of PoW-based cryptocurrencies and developing alternatives to PoW. In this article, we introduce refined models to estimate the electricity consumption of two prominent alternatives: Ethereum, now utilizing proof-of-stake (PoS), and Filecoin, which employs proof-of-spacetime (PoSt). Ethereum stands as a leading blockchain platform for crafting decentralized applications, whereas Filecoin is recognized as the world's foremost decentralized data storage network. Prior studies for modeling electricity consumption have been criticized for methodological flaws and shortcomings, low-quality data, and unvalidated assumptions. We improve on this in several ways: we obtain more novel, validated data from the systems in question, extract information from existing data and research, and we improve transparency and reproducibility by clearly explaining and documenting the used methodology and explicitly stating unavoidable limitations and assumptions made. When comparing the current, most prominent models for Ethereum and Filecoin to our refined models, we find that given the wide error margins of both the refined models and the ones introduced in prior literature, the resulting average estimates are to a large extent in line with each other.
The energy-intensive characteristics of the computations performed by graphics processing units (GPUs) in proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain technology are readily apparent. The optimization of GPU feature configuration is a complex subject that significantly impacts a system’s energy consumption and performance efficiency. The primary objectives of this study are to examine and improve the energy consumption characteristics of GPUs, which play a crucial role in the functioning of blockchains and the mining of cryptocurrencies. This study examines the complex relationship between GPU configurations and system architecture components and their effects on energy efficiency and sustainability. The methodology of this study conducts experiments involving various GPU models and mining software, evaluating their effectiveness across various configurations and environments. Multilinear regression analysis is used to study the complex relationships between critical performance indicators like power consumption, thermal dynamics, core speed, and hash rate and their effects on energy efficiency and performance. The results reveal that strategically adjusting GPU hardware, software, and configuration can preserve substantial energy while preserving computational efficiency. GPU core speed, temperature, core memory speed, ETASH algorithms, fan speed, and energy usage significantly affected the dependent computational-efficiency variable (p = 0.000 and R2 = 0.962) using multilinear regression analysis. GPU core speed, temperature, core memory speed, fan speed, and energy usage significantly affected efficient energy usage (p = 0.000 and R2 = 0.989). The contributions of this study offer practical recommendations for optimizing the feature configurations of GPUs to reduce energy consumption, mitigate the environmental impacts of blockchain operations, and contribute to the current research on performance in PoW blockchain applications.
Purpose Blockchain is a disruptive technology that has matured to deliver robust, global, IT systems, yet adoption lags predictions. The authors explore barriers to adoption in the context of a global challenge with multiple stakeholders: integration of carbon markets. Going beyond the dominant economic-rationalistic paradigm of information system (IS) innovation adoption, the authors reduce pro-innovation bias and broaden inter-organizational scope by using technological frames theory to capture the cognitive framing of the challenges perceived within the world’s largest carbon emitter: China. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews with 15 key experts representing three communities in China’s carbon markets: IT experts in carbon markets; carbon market experts with conceptual knowledge of blockchain and carbon market experts with practical blockchain experience. Findings Perceived technical challenges were found to be the least significant in explaining adoption. Significant challenges in five areas: social, political legal and policy (PLP), data, organizational and managerial (OM) and economic, with PLP and OM given most weight. Mapping to frames developed to encompass these challenges: nature of technology, strategic use of technology and technology readiness resolved frame incongruence that, in the case explored, did not lead to rejection of blockchain, but a decision to defer investment, increase the scope of analysis and delay the adoption decision. Originality/value Increases scope and resolution of IS adoption research. Technological frames theory moves from predominant economic-rational models to a social cognitive perspective. Broadens understanding of blockchain adoption in a context combining the world’s most carbon emissions with ownership of most blockchain patents, detailing socio-technical challenges and delivering practical guidance for policymakers and practitioners.