Zumo joins World Economic Forum's Crypto Sustainability Coalition

Zumo has announced that it has become the latest member of the World Economic Forum's Crypto Sustainability Coalition (CSC)

The UK-based crypto wallet and crypto-as-a-service provider will join more than 30 organisations in helping to develop a more environmentally sustainable crypto industry. 

On 21 September, the WEF launched the CSC will the aim to assess how web3 and blockchain projects can be leveraged to tackle ongoing climate change concerns. 

The coalition is part of the Crypto Impact and Sustainability Accelerator, a grant-funded initiative launched by the WEF in January 2022.

Current coalition partners include Accenture, Avalanche, Circle,eToro, EY and Solana among others. Zumo marks the newest addition to the climate change initiative. 

“As we all know, there’s a lot left to do and a long way to go; what we’re seeing, however, is the strands of this work in the crypto ESG space really coming together – and, perhaps, the beginnings of a shift in the narrative and the ability to see this technology not just as a problem, but as a potential force multiplier for good," said Nick Jones, chief executive officer at Zumo.

Earlier this month, UK-based Zumo ranked first in the Climate Innovation category at the 2022 Scottish Financial Technology awards for its effort to decarbonise crypto. 

Crypto and in particular consensus mechanisms like bitcoin's proof-of-work protocol have come under scrutiny for their energy use. Research from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Index suggests that bitcoin mining consumes 111 TWh per year, slightly more than the 104TWh consumed by fridges in the US. 

Source: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Index

In light of growing climate concerns, regulations such as the EU's second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive and the newly accepted markets in the crypto-assets (MiCA) framework have legislated and called for more environmentally conscious financial services and crypto space. 

At present, most crypto-ESG solutions offer carbon offsetting solutions, calculating the price of the carbon emissions emitted by crypto products.

However, this may only be a short-term solution. 

Firms like Crusoe Energy which is looking at power mining operations by using methane from waste found in landfills and Tesseract Energy, currently developing a blockchain-based renewable energy provision ecosystem. 

In an interview with AltFi, Tesseract Energy founder, Alan Chang said the key to renewable energy in crypto targets "energy production" as opposed to how firms or people consume energy.