Swash goes greener🌱: Ecofriendly solutions and scalability with xDai and Polygon

Crypto’s energy usage has been a heated topic in the community, with increasing demand for protocols and crypto companies to establish green metrics for the future.

Swash believes in making crypto more accessible for everyone while working on solutions to reduce its energy impact in the world.

Data Union members can enjoy more scalable, cheaper, and greener ways to transact with $SWASH through integrations with xDai and Polygon!

Let’s explore the ways crypto is moving into a sustainable and green future and how Swash is leading that change from within.

🌋 Bitcoin and Ethereum: Crypto’s energy usage is growing

According to 2020 data from Lab10Collective, Bitcoin’s energy usage equals the consumption of over 2.5 million US households (although others estimate that it’s closer to 5.2 million), while Ethereum matches 721K households.

In 2021, the energy consumption of the two leading digital assets almost doubled to reach record levels, despite efforts to break this trend. For example, in 2020, Bitcoin’s carbon footprint was 55.03 Mt CO2, and continued to rise to 95.81 Mt CO2 in 2021.

✅ The solution: A strong use-case and moving towards a green future

It’s important not to forget the impressive use cases and advantages of digital assets over legacy financial systems when evaluating their footprint in the world. However, that value should also be compared to current alternatives and their future green status.

Ethereum is moving in towards greener pastures by leaving behind its Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus in favour of Proof-of-Stake (PoS). Under ETH 2.0, Ethereum’s carbon footprint and energy usage will be significantly lower. In the Bitcoin ecosystem, miners are moving to countries with 100% green-energy sources while decentralising Bitcoin’s hash rate.

What else can crypto do to improve its energy landscape?

🌱 Introducing scalable and native-green crypto platforms as xDai

xDai Chain (now Gnosis Chain) is an Ethereum compatible chain that uses DAI, a popular stablecoin, offering low transaction costs. Beyond being a stable and very scalable network, it directly addresses energy concerns without compromising on other benefits.

The energy usage of the xDai Chain is the same as 2.1 US households. Compared to Bitcoin or Ethereum, that usage is practically non-existent and a vastly superior alternative.

💚 Swash is using xDai to enable the Swash app to be greener while giving Data Union members a faster, cheaper, and greener way to handle their earnings

xDai’s efficiency, scalability, and green profile have caught the attention of crypto enthusiasts worldwide, registering tremendous growth in 2021. In November, the xDai Chain registered over 5.6M transactions after reaching a monthly record in August by crossing 9M transactions.

Despite its growth, xDai has maintained sustainable levels of gas fees, reinforcing its position as a go-to network for not only scalable but energy-efficient transactions.

Swash, aims to bolster the adoption of green, scalable, and cost-effective networks for its members. Since the latest update of the Swash App, Data Union members can withdraw their $SWASH rewards at lower costs using xDai.

🌐 Swash expands partnerships to support Polygon, propelling green and efficient networks

Polygon is a Layer 2 solution under Ethereum, offering users a way to use the Ethereum network more efficiently.

Polygon is one of the crypto winners of 2021, showing superior growth. In October 2021, the Polygon network had over 566K active registered addresses, beating Ethereum due to its scalable, faster, and cheaper solution for transactions.

Beyond growth, Polygon supports Swash’s quest to go green. Estimations from Polygon in 2021 reveal that the network’s yearly energy use would be equivalent to 67.2 homes. Polygon’s energy consumption is ten times less than its underlying platform — Ethereum — proving to be a sustainable solution for green-conscious users.

⚔️ Data Union members can now enjoy $SWASH transactions with Polygon

Swash is partnering with Polygon to expand the options of Data Union members when transacting with $SWASH and contributing to a green-friendly Web 3 landscape.

Data Union members will have one more option in their withdrawal section of the Swash App, choosing between the Ethereum Mainnet, xDai, or Polygon, with more integrations coming soon.

Swash is committed to supporting these new solutions, expanding options for Data Union members, and tackling crypto’s energy usage with responsibility and innovation.

Stay tuned for more updates in the Swash ecosystem.

About Swash

At Swash, if it’s your data, it’s your income.

Swash is an ecosystem of tools and services that enable people, businesses, and developers to unlock the latent value of data by pooling, securely sharing, and monetising its value.

• People share their data to earn while retaining their privacy.
• Businesses access high-quality, zero-party data in a sustainable and compliant way.
• Developers set up and build systems within a collaborative development framework with ease.

As the world’s leading Data Union, Swash is reimagining data ownership by enabling all actors of the data economy to earn, access, build and collaborate in a liquid digital ecosystem for data.

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Originally published at https://swashapp.io on January 26, 2022.