The Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) had a breakthrough year in 2023, with record user growth, surging transaction volumes, and numerous projects bringing new products to market, all while working behind the scenes to prove that a green cloud computing future is within reach.
The full ICP Sustainability Report can be found here:
assets.carboncrowd.io/reports/ICF2023.pdf
It provides a detailed comparison of ICP’s 2022 and 2023 environmental indicators, and in contrast, this article will explore what the report’s findings mean for ICP, and what we can (and are) doing about it.
Where we are and where we are going!
Proposed 2022 Report
2/5 - Completed
Real-time emissions tracking of IC’s electricity usage and corresponding emissions;
Dedicated resources to support sustainability initiatives within the IC ecosystem.
2/5 - In Progress
Developing fully decarbonized subnetworks on the Internet Computer;
Make the network carbon neutral.
Version 2.0 of the ICF Dashboard (Q1 2024) will address both proposals.
1/5 - Abandoned
Immediately reduce the carbon intensity of the IC network through node relocation.
At the current stage of network development, moving nodes is not considered technically feasible.
ICF Roadmap 2024
The launch of OpenChat DAO’s real-time emissions tracking, setting a new global benchmark for environmental transparency in decentralized applications (DApps);
The launch of the ICF Dashboard v2.0 will create an ICP “climate economy” that attracts new projects and innovations into the ecosystem;
2 environmental tokens will support the sustainability of the entire network and future Utopia networks;
Plans to provide ICP native services to Web2 companies across chains.
Stay tuned for full details in the ICF White Paper (Q1 2024)!
results and analysis
Improving network efficiency as scale increases
As the 2022 report was about to be published, DFINITY generously admitted that these numbers did not accurately reflect their unwavering commitment to building an efficient network. Why? Because they had built a lot of “slack” or reserve capacity into the network, so the cost of a single transaction was significantly higher than strictly necessary.
With the 2023 report out, hopefully they now feel they were vindicated, the efficiency figures for 2022-2023 improved as network activity grew, and are likely to continue to improve as network activity increases, in short, ICPs become more efficient as they scale.
“The power consumption for a single transaction on the IC is 0.003 Wh/tx, down from 0.006 Wh/tx in 2022.”
Stay tuned for future reports as we track this critical data.
Total electricity use and emissions rise
“The IC’s direct electricity consumption was 1,248,694.2 kWh/year, up from 1,052,741.76 kWh/year in 2022.”
“IC’s annual Scope 2 carbon footprint is approximately 389.0 tCo2e, up from approximately 275.8 tCo2e in 2022.”
Scope 2 emissions increased in 2023 compared to 2022. Scope 2 emissions relate to indirect emissions resulting from purchased electricity, heat, cooling or steam. For ICP, this is primarily electricity consumed directly by the nodes, meaning that all things being equal, introducing new nodes into the network will always increase scope 2 emissions.
Additionally, increased network activity means that nodes need to consume more power to meet the network demand, even though this is negligible, nodes with low utilization still consume a lot of power, however, this is not the whole "scope 2 story", to find out more we need to take a closer look at the location of the new nodes.
Note: The science of digital emissions measurement continues to evolve as new methodologies and practices emerge. This report focuses on Scope 2 emissions. To learn more about the meaning of Scopes 1, 2, and 3 in the context of ICP, check out this post by ICF on X (formerly Twitter).
Decentralization and sustainability
Decentralization is at the core of ICP’s “immutable and unstoppable” value proposition, and over the past year, node providers have begun offering services in several new regions, increasing the decentralization of the network, but at what cost?
While some regions that came online, such as Sweden, which has the lowest carbon intensity of the EU grid, reduced the average carbon intensity of the network, others achieved the opposite effect. Setting up nodes in South Africa and Bangladesh, where the fuel mix relies heavily on coal, helped to increase the average emissions factor of the network.
“The average emission factor climbs from 0.262 kg/kWh to 0.311 kg/kWh in 2023.”
A growing network consuming more energy and with higher average emission factors will inevitably see an increase in total scope 2 emissions, fortunately this does not have to be the case, below is a non-exhaustive list of strategies to break this trend, and more importantly, some of which ICF is already working to implement.
Introducing a mechanism for node providers to purchase renewable energy through RECs;
Adjusting node provider reward incentives to support running greener nodes;
Incorporate sustainability metrics as part of the node provider selection process.
in conclusion
The 2023 ICP Sustainability Report sets out how robust emissions analytics implemented across the agreement in 2023 will enable a data-driven approach to network decarbonization, where positive trends can be reinforced and regressions in environmental indicators can be detected and acted upon.
Throughout 2023, as ICP’s technology stack proves its suitability for future “climate-aware computing” as a high-value service, ICF aims to extend the network’s leadership in “climate-aware computing” and ensure a lasting competitive advantage for the entire ecosystem.
We are extremely grateful for the continued support from the entire ICP community as the IC decarbonization journey unfolds, thank you and we look forward to sharing what we’ve been working on soon!
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