by Chao Cheng-Shorland, its co-founder ShelterZoomblockchain SaaS software provider such as Document GPS and DocuWalk;
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Web3.0, sometimes abbreviated as Web3, ushers in an Internet era consisting of a more decentralized infrastructure, as well as a metaverse where users want more control over their data and online privacy. The companies that succeed in the Web3.0 era will be the ones that create brand new models to solve or prevent some of our most entrenched problems.
Digital privacy, security and the unlikely candidate for excessive carbon emissions are three of today’s problems that can be addressed using Web3 tools. Not only that, but they can all be improved using the same platform. As we sit here today, very few people are concerned about the carbon emissions created by the tens of billions of digital attachments being sent around the world, but from my perspective, as someone who works at a blockchain smart document company, I see the amount as pointless waste. energy is already taking place.
First, let’s look at the data. Studies show that an average email attachment emits about 50g of CO2 into the atmosphere (from Mike Berners-Lee’s book How Bad Are Bananas?: The Carbon Footprint of Everything by Mike Berners-Lee). This is largely due to the electricity required by the elaborate infrastructure of data centers around the world that process and store each message. Further calculations estimate that the average office worker receives about 6,000 attachments that they ignore each year. All of this adds up to the equivalent of a passenger car driving 1,093 miles for each office worker. These numbers don’t even include the many more components that workers open, so the total carbon impact is much higher.
The good news is that we don’t have to continue down this path. Blockchain platforms and immutable ledgers already have a proactive solution built in. By being able to access files – whether they’re documents, contracts or media – from one type of access point that people can be sure hasn’t been compromised, we can reduce the amount of carbon generated by sending attachments. I thought of calling this concept “single source of truth”—the idea that we can create immutable, secure files and send people to a single source instead of making multiple copies of the original and sending those copies out into the world.
This also provides greater opportunities to put safeguards in place so that creators are in control of their work. You won’t have to worry about something you’ve attached to an email being shared with anyone other than the sender. And if you want to revoke access to the original, you can remove it or disable someone else’s rights. Not only does a Web3 approach mitigate carbon emissions, it also creates a whole new world of privacy and security, and reduces the need for even more physical infrastructure to support the tens of billions of attachments sent around the world every day.
Of course, I can’t mention blockchain and the environment without touching on Bitcoin and the massive energy consumption it takes. While mining for Bitcoin is completely different from the single source of truth model that I predict will be our future, there are signs that people are moving to a greener crypto landscape. Even though we are currently looking at an industry that consumes about 0.55% of the world’s electricity, energy consumption is not something that will last.
The best part about this is how easy it will be to adopt a new normal. Instead of a major change in behavior, only a change in mindset is required. In the same way that we now put on seat belts without thinking too much or throw something in a recycling bin instead of the trash, we can easily move to a world where we only download what we need.
We already do this for simple documents on platforms like GoogleDocs, but as Web3 becomes more sophisticated, we’ll be able to host a wider variety of content with greater levels of privacy. From business and personal records, contracts, deeds and all the other documents we use on a daily basis to original art and music, everything can be housed in a much lower carbon environment.
Sustainability is not a word you often hear associated with Web3. But it can become a cornerstone of the digital universe with very little overhead and minimal effort. While I can see that some would initially be skeptical that I am advocating a decentralized model to solve a major digital sustainability issue, it turns out that the solution is exactly what Web3 needs.
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