Developing a Methodology and Sustainability Standards for Mitigating the Environmental Impact of Crypto-Assets (MESMERICE)

The project compiles a method to assess the negative externalities caused by crypto-assets and proposes regulatory measures to reduce them.

The project at a glance

Start date:

01 Jul 2024
Duration in months:

13
Funding:

DG-FISMA
Principal Investigator(s):

Gilbert FRIDGEN

Laurent Zibell (external)

About

The rapid development of crypto-assets, based on distributed ledger technologies (DLTs), entails a range of potential benefits for the EU economy. On the other hand, legitimate concerns have been raised in academia and in the general public regarding the energy consumption and broader environmental impact of some of these crypto-assets and blockchain technology in general. The discourse is focused on, but not restricted to, blockchain networks using proof of work as the consensus mechanism that validates the addition of new blocks to the chain. Consequently, the European Parliament has included a preparatory action in the adopted 2023 General Budget of the Union (PA 03 23 01) for the ‘development of a methodology and sustainability standards for mitigating the environmental impact of crypto-assets’, and the European Commission, DG FISMA, has opened a call for tenders to implement this preparatory action. The MESMERICE project, therefore, synthesises and complements existing research to propose a rigorous methodology to determine the negative externalities caused by crypto-asset use and proposes way to reflect these externalities in the regulatory treatment of activities corresponding to crypto-assets to incentivise the use of sustainable technology.

Organisation and Partners

Digital Financial Services and Cross-Organisational Digital Transformations Research Group (FINATRAX)
Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT)
Trinomics