Methodology

XRPL is committed to environmental stewardship and advancing blockchain technology in a way that is both sustainable and responsible. This methodology page outlines our comprehensive approach to measuring, mitigating, and transparently reporting the environmental impact of the XRP Ledger (XRPL).

Scope definition

Our sustainability assessment encompasses both core and extended aspects of XRPL's operations:

Core Scope

This involves primary network operations, including transaction validations, consensus activities, and basic network functionalities.

Extended Scope

This includes peripheral activities such as node setups, additional services, and network-associated operations.

Carbon Footprint Calculation

Our methodology calculates the carbon footprint across various operational aspects:

Direct Emissions are calculated from known energy consumption data directly linked to XRPL's primary operations.

Indirect Emissions include emissions from peripheral activities and secondary services that support the network.

Key steps

Hardware Selection

We begin by analyzing the network and its minimum hardware requirements to select a representative hardware sample.

Hardware Measurement

Full nodes are run on all selected hardware devices, and their electricity consumption is measured.

Electricity Consumption

We estimate the total network electricity consumption by scaling measurement results with the total node count.

Performance Metrics

Examination of the number of transactions helps derive marginal electricity consumption per transaction.

Carbon Footprint

Data on node locations are gathered to calculate the network's carbon footprint via emission factors.

Results of XRPL Core & Extended Footprint Assessment

Transparency & Reporting

Dashboard

Our sustainability dashboard provides real-time insights into the network's energy consumption and carbon emissions, which are accessible publicly to ensure transparency.

Updates

We periodically publish detailed reports and updates on our sustainability practices and outcomes.

Get involved!

Making the XRPL protocol more sustainable is a community project.

Are you a community member ?

Get in touch to join our regular discussions to identify & implement decarbonisation levers, share best practices and empower virtuous business models.

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Are you a validator?

Please fill in our Validator Data Request. This will help us better understand the energy consumption of the XRPL network. Your input is indispensable to us!

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