“People frequently complain about the tremendous energy usage of blockchain, but this rhetoric is based on outdated, so-called proof of work technology like Bitcoin. New blockchain technologies and particularly Solana are creating a shift here,” said Andrus Aaslaid, chief technology officer and co-founder of Single.Earth.
“With Solana, the power utilization per transaction is 10 million times less than for Bitcoin and 16 times smaller than its nearest competition. It may be even compared to your typical Google search,” Aaslaid remarked.
Single.Earth simulates the capacity of nature in terms of carbon and biodiversity. Using satellite photos, big data analysis, and machine learning, it has developed a digital clone of planet Earth, illustrating how nature operates. Single.Earth emits tokens to landowners for carbon dioxide gathered in biodiverse nature.
“Blockchain technology is the right answer for the difficulties of transparency and trust which are hanging over voluntary carbon markets,” Aaslaid stated.
In summer 2021, the 2019-founded Single.Earth secured one of the biggest seed investments in Estonia to date: $7.9 million led by EQT Ventures and joined by Icebreaker.vc and Pipedrive founders Ragnar Sass and Martin Henk. Since then, the team has expanded from eight to around 60 members, including a climate science team of 15 from UC Berkeley, Harvard, University of California, Imperial College London, and others.