Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) has successfully launched its Green Cryptocurrency Laboratory. Co-founded with the CloudTech Group, a leader in FinTech and blockchain technology, the lab will focus on reducing the carbon footprint of crypto.
The May 6 event was hosted by Professor Zahir Tari, who has been named the lab’s director. RMIT is the world’s No 2 leading blockchain university and home of the Blockchain Innovation Hub. The Hub’s partnership with CloudTech aims to find answers to the increasing carbon footprint crypto technology is developing.
You might be shocked to learn that [blockchain technology] consumes more electricity to maintain the Bitcoin network each year than a medium-sized European country like Finland.
Professor Zahir Tari, joint director, RMIT Green Crypto Lab
The first project for the lab will be to develop Green Bitcoin, which will be a blockchain network based on PoST as the “underlying consensus mechanism”.
RMIT’s Blockchain Innovation Hub has been at the forefront of crypto development in Australia. In April it submitted a proposal to help the Melbourne portside precinct recover from the pandemic via the Docklands DAO. And, in October 2021, the university urged the Australian government to reform capital gains tax on crypto, stating that “reform will offer clarity for taxpayers and confidence in the tax system as a whole”.