Samoyedcoin’s Energy Use Report
This is going to shock you…
January 9th marks one of the most peculiar holidays celebrated every year, National Static Electricity Day! This annual holiday is dedicated to the unexpected, mostly unpleasant, and sometimes hair-raising phenomenon known as “static electricity.” While some choose to celebrate this holiday by shocking friends and family, we want to celebrate by sharing something that will shock you…
Did you know that a single SAMO transaction uses 1/239th of the energy of a DOGE transaction?! Not only that, but a SAMO transaction uses 1/418,000th the energy of a SHIB transaction! That’s right, in addition to SAMO transactions costing a fraction of its peers and settling in real-time, SAMO is also lightyears ahead in terms of energy efficiency. Thanks in part to Solana’s energy efficiency, SAMO stands as the most sound form of “dogmoney” in all of crypto!
For those who might not know, Samoyedcoin (SAMO) is a community coin deployed on the Solana network. Because all network transactions are created equal on Solana, SAMO’s energy consumption per transaction is based on the amount of energy a Solana transaction uses. In November 2021, the Solana Foundation published its Solana’s Energy Use Report, where the network’s energy usage was compared to other common activities. Not only did the report show that a single Solana transaction used as much energy as a Google search, but how the network is significantly more efficient when compared to, say, the Bitcoin and Ethereum network. To assess how SAMO’s energy consumption stacks up to peers, we leveraged the Solana Foundation’s report and other resources to produce a similar comparative analysis.
As of today, all Dogecoin (DOGE) transactions take place on the Dogecoin blockchain, and all Shiba Inu (SHIB) transactions take place on the Ethereum blockchain. Recently, both blockchains have come under fire for their carbon footprint, which is largely attributed to the computational power both networks spend to secure their network. While it is ultimately up to the general public to decide what is and isn’t a good use of energy, we believe it’s worth considering just how little energy SAMO uses compared to DOGE and SHIB.
According to TRG Datacenters, a DOGE transaction consumes 0.12 kWh of energy. The latest data from Digiconomist shows that an Ethereum transaction uses 234 kWh of energy. So while 100,000 SAMO transactions only use 51 kWh, the same number of DOGE and SHIB transactions use a whopping 12,000 kWh and 23,400,000 kWh! That’s quite the difference…
OK, so SAMO uses substantially less energy than DOGE and SHIB. But how does all this energy consumption stack up to other common activities? For starters, consider that a single U.S. household uses, on average, 29 kWh each day. Now, while 100,000 SAMO transactions use less energy than two U.S. households, 100,000 DOGE transactions consume almost 413 U.S. households’ worth of energy! Furthermore, 100,000 DOGE transactions consume about half the energy that the World Cup match consumes each year.
Before shifting focus to SHIB, first note that Finland uses 23,400,000 kWh of energy every ~2.5 hours. Although Finland isn’t the largest European country, it is still the home to 6 million people. That’s A LOT of people! As previously mentioned, the total energy consumed by 100,000 SHIB transactions is 23,400,000 kWh. This means that for the Ethereum network to process 100,000 SHIB transactions, the network will have consumed the same amount of energy as one of the largest Nordic countries does every 2.5 hours!
Like many sectors within the cryptoasset industry, the world of dogmoney/memecoins/community coins likely won’t be a winner-take-all market. However, it is essential to consider that as the broader cryptoasset ecosystem evolves and innovates, demand and interest may ultimately flow to other competing projects that have other competitive advantages that set themselves apart from peers. Said differently, while SAMO is still a small pup as of today, it only costs a fraction of a penny to send SAMO, no new SAMO will ever be created, transactions are near-instant, and SAMO’s carbon footprint is close to nil. How does that not make your hair stand up straight?
