LONDON (Bywire News) - Eight months after it pivoted to become an NFT platform for creators, Voice.com is celebrating a major milestone as it becomes carbon negative. The news comes on the eve of Earth Month and demonstrates that it is possible to create web 3.0 technologies that protect the environment.
Voice.com has achieved this goal by pledging to support reforestation projects. For every NFT created on their platform, they have promised to plant a tree. This effort, they say, will take them into carbon-neutral territory for the first time.
"Every NFT minted on Voice is already carbon neutral, so we're focused on reforestation and moving towards carbon negativity," says Salah Zalatimo, CEO of Voice. "Building a sustainable NFT ecosystem can't be done only by offsetting. We must also build a greener future."
From day one, Voice.com set out to create an NFT platform which was environmentally friendly, easy to use, robust, portable and decentralised. It runs on a private EOSIO blockchain which differs from major blockchains such as Ethereum and Bitcoin in that it is carbon neutral.
It does this thanks to its distributed proof of stake model which does not require large server farms to work. In dPOS block producers take turns to produce their blocks without needing to solve complex mathematical problems as under proof of work. The only power involved with dPOS is the energy used to add blocks of transactions to the blockchain.
This is key given controversies over the vast carbon footprint of the two biggest blockchains. EOSIO with its proof of stake model has the massive advantage of being entirely carbon neutral which means any further activity allows it to claim a net positive impact on the environment.
To run their reforestation efforts Voice has partnered with Ecologi, a platform for real climate action. It facilitates the funding of carbon offset projects such as tree planting around the world.
Throughout April, all trees which are planted on behalf of the Voice community will be transparently viewable on the platform's virtual forest.
“We are delighted that Voice has partnered with us to celebrate Earth Month, pledging to plant a tree for every NFT created on their platform in April," says Linda Adams, Head of Partnerships, Ecologi. "By pioneering the world's first eco-friendly blockchain technology, and by encouraging other platforms to take responsibility for their emissions, Voice's dedication to changing this notoriously energy-intensive industry is remarkable.”
Aside from its reforestation efforts, Voice is also supporting the Capricorn Ridge Wind Project, a wind generation plant in Texas. The company also partnered with Google Cloud to ensure data usage is not just carbon neutral, but carbon negative.
At a time when blockchain technology is facing heavy criticism over its environmental impact, then, Voice.com and EOS as a whole, are demonstrating that another vision is possible.
(Writing by Tom Cropper, editing by Klaudia Fior)