Blockchain and Climate Change: The Transition from ‘Villain’ to Unsung Hero

Blockchain is rising to prominence as the world looks to digital technology to speed up responses to challenges such as climate change. One of the primary uses of blockchain technology is to validate and track complex multi-step transactions. Although it is best recognized for its function in Bitcoin, blockchain technology is being used in a variety of applications, from monitoring the environmental impact of products to real-time pollution monitoring. There are two main points to consider. Even if we know what to do to slow or stop climate change, we don’t know how to achieve it. We confront a climate-governance crisis at the same time. The 2015 Paris Agreement marked a historic turning point for global climate action. The pace of climate change has slowed a bit, but it is still expected to rise over the previously agreed-upon thresholds. It’s time to come up with fresh ideas and push nations who aren’t following the Paris Agreement to account. Things get a lot simpler when blockchain is included in the arsenal of tools used to address climate change. How, then, can this be done? Going Green with Smart Contracts Until recently, the inability of blockchains to interact effectively with real-world data, particularly environmental data, impeded the creation of green smart contracts. Recent years have seen the development of ‘oracles’ — entities that can shepherd facts about the world into blockchains. In recent times, these orac...