Incorporating green software into Web3 ensures that the computational processes driving decentralization are as eco-friendly as possible, moving from theoretical sustainability to verifiable impact.
As Energy Web's CTO and Board Member, Mani has guided the organization’s technical strategy to ensure alignment of their decarbonization goals with the pursuit of innovative technological solutions.
Can you tell us about Energy Web?
Energy Web (EWF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to designing, developing, and delivering solutions that drive decarbonization across the global energy sector. By focusing on trustless, decentralized, and opensource technologies, we aim to accelerate the green energy transition. Our work spans areas like blockchain and Web3 applications tailored to energy use cases.
How does green software fit into the Web3 Technology ecosystem?
Decentralized technologies, like blockchain, consume considerable energy, and green software plays a key role in addressing their environmental footprint. At Energy Web, we work towards blockchain and enterprise software solutions that are both decentralized and sustainable.
Green software provides the framework to minimize the carbon footprint of these systems by allowing us to verify sustainability claims with data-driven and transparent methods. Incorporating green software into Web3 ensures that the computational processes driving decentralization are as eco-friendly as possible, moving from theoretical sustainability to verifiable impact.
Why did you join GSF?
While pursuing the development of decentralized technology, we recognize the importance of aligning our efforts with established standards like those offered by the GSF, including the Carbon Aware SDK and the Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) Specification.
Joining the GSF provides an opportunity to leverage and contribute to its initiatives, collaborate with industry leaders in developing and promoting best practices for sustainability in blockchain and decentralized systems, and actively contribute to advancing green software.
What challenges and opportunities can you share as you look to reduce the environmental impacts of software?
One of the main challenges we face is balancing the benefits of decentralization with the environmental impact of blockchain technology.
Decentralized compute resources, particularly those used in Proof of Work or Proof of Stake mechanisms, are inherently energy-intensive. Additionally, there are no widely accepted blockchain standards that adequately address the environmental impacts of the technology while maintaining the advantages of decentralization. However, this also opens up an opportunity: By developing new standards and best practices that prioritize sustainability, we can take the lead in making blockchain greener without compromising the integrity of decentralization.
How do you hope to contribute and benefit from the GSF?
EWF has recently delivered the world’s first decentralized computation nomination system based on sustainability factors using the Carbon Aware SDK. Through our work, we strive to provide real-world case studies and solutions that help move the industry toward greener blockchain and decentralized software development.
By collaborating with GSF, we hope to contribute to creating the first blockchain-specific SCI standards. At the same time, we are aware of the benefits that the collective expertise of the foundation’s members can offer in making global decentralized systems more sustainable.
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