Crypto influencer Ben “BitBoy” Armstrong recently claimed that Cardano was the most decentralized Proof-of-Stake blockchain, citing a January report by crypto-focused research startup Crypto Carbon Rating Institute (CCRI). According to Bitboy, Cardano consumes the most energy per transaction among all PoS chains, which could indicate the network’s decentralization.
“It’s real easy to save electricity when you are centralized,” BitBoy tweeted today, sharing the CCRI report, claiming that Solana’s impressive speed comes at the cost of decentralization.
“If you are unaware, the prioritization of speed through centralization is the number one thing that hurt the Solana tech,” BitBoy stated. “There’s a reason $ADA is top of this list. Get it yet?” he concluded.
Read more: Metrics Indicate Cardano Is Undervalued As Accumulation Increases
According to the CCRI report, Solana consumes approximately 0.17 Wh per transaction, the lowest of any PoS blockchain on the list. Cardano, on the other hand, has the highest energy consumption per transaction of any PoS chain, at 51.59 Wh.
CCRI reports that decentralized systems typically consume significantly more electricity per transaction than centralized systems. This is due to the amount of computational hardware used by decentralized systems to process transactions and the global distribution of nodes. To put this in context, the Bitcoin network, which is considered the most decentralized chain, consumes a whopping 17,222,400 Wh (1722.24 kWh) per transaction, which is the highest ever.
A close examination of Visa’s energy consumption per transaction puts things into context. Despite its distinctive centralized nature, Visa consumes more energy than Solana, at 1.49 Wh per transaction.
“Generally, it is not surprising that a centralized system like Visa is more energy-efficient than a decentralized system. Due to the difference in the amount of computational hardware and distribution worldwide, most systems must consume more electricity,” the report notes.
Although Solana consumes little energy per transaction, its total annual energy consumption is the highest of any PoS network due to the volume of transactions it processes. Solana’s annual energy transaction is 1,900,000 kWh, which is greater than Cardano’s (598,755 kWh).
Despite Ethereum’s transition to PoS in September, Indian blockchain specialist Sooraj claimed earlier this month that Cardano is more decentralized than Ethereum. Sooraj’s claims were based on several metrics, including the staking ratio, initial coin distribution, and the Nakamoto Coefficient. According to Sooraj, cardano is the most decentralized PoS network.
