Bitcoin has a massive carbon footprint. This clever new cryptocurrency doesn’t

Bitcoin is undoubtedly exciting, but, as much as it might promise to solve some of the problems associated with global finance, it’s also responsible for creating problems of its own. The most concerning of these is the environmental impact of mining cryptocurrency due to the huge amounts of electricity it requires. This, in turn, results in tens of millions of metric tons worth of carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere.

That’s a big cause for concern, and it’s something that researchers at Switzerland’s Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne have been working to come up with a solution for. In contrast to the large electricity consumption and carbon footprint of Bitcoin, they are developing a new approach to cryptocurrencies they hope could lead to a near zero-energy alternative.

“We developed an algorithm that enables payment in a secure and efficient manner,” Guerraoui Rachid, a professor in the School of Computer and Communication Sciences, told Digital…