Online communication accounts for 7% of the world’s energy supply with internet technologies, and daily e-habits of internet users are responsible for over 360 million tons of CO2 annually. And considering that the number of active web dwellers is rapidly growing, the situation will likely worsen soon. To understand the issue, let’s briefly define the primary sources of the damage and find out whether the internet can become more eco-friendly.

1. Damage Sources

Spam

Conventional emails are notorious for spam. The electricity needed to transmit the trillions of spam emails sent every year is equivalent to powering two million homes in the United States and generating the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as that produced by three million cars.

Tricky UX

All social networks generate tons of CO2 annually. The most eco-friendly conventional service is Twitter: a single tweet is estimated to have a footprint of 0.02g CO2. However, the impact is still huge, considering the number of daily posts and bots.

One of the most popular socials, Instagram, is times more harmful: posting a photo emits 0.15g of CO2, and scrolling on one’s newsfeed for 1 minute emits 1.5g of CO2. These figures result from the complex UX and central servers the company uses.

Meanwhile, according to Freitag, messages sent via such services as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger are slightly less carbon-intensive than sending an email. The thing is that messengers are widely used on smartphones and have complex UX.

Online Advertising

Online advertising consumes 20.38 to 282.75 TWh of energy and emits 11.53 – 159.93 million tons of CO2. Additionally, ads persuade people to make excessive purchases that damage nature.

Central Servers

Central servers needed for most social networks use more than 2% of the world’s electricity and contribute 2% of the world’s CO2 emissions, equivalent to the airline industry.

2. The Solution

Considering that the carbon-low web is a solution that has a simple UX, no ads, and doesn’t need central servers, it becomes real thanks to Utopia P2P, a multitool ecosystem that has a messenger, a browser, an email, and a payment system.

How Does Utopia Work?

Utopia is a third-generation mesh network where the personal device of each user acts as an independent Utopia P2P server. This approach reduces energy consumption. Meanwhile, it is not the benefit of the service. Let’s point out its main avantages.

Harmless And Server-free Web Browser

To use a conventional browser safely, a person should install some anti-virus software. However, even the most pricey tools don’t guarantee complete security, and even MacBooks can be damaged by malware. If a computer can’t work normally, a user will likely buy a new one. Thus, more CO2 will be generated: a study at the University of Edinburgh found that extending the time you use a single computer and monitor from four to six years could avoid the equivalent of 190kg of carbon emissions. Utopia P2P prevents such situations by being spam-free and moderating all websites in the in-built browser Idyll.

In a nutshell, it is a completely anonymous web browser that functions like the famous Tor project. However, Utopia’s proprietary solution is much more convenient to use and has more modern functionality. Idyll allows you to access websites that are automatically blocked by regular browsers, as well as sites created directly in the Utopia ecosystem. Nothing in this browser captures the users’ IP addresses, collects cookies, or otherwise tracks their location or other personal data.

The next important “green” feature of Idyll is the fact that it’s serverless. Officially, a single Google query emits 0.2 grams of CO2. Meanwhile, according to energy technologies expert Chris Goodall, a 15-minute Google search generates from 7 to 10g of CO2. Thus, the average annual carbon footprint of browsing is equivalent to 10 million tons of carbon dioxide. If we talk about Utopia P2P, its impact is reduced thanks to the smaller number of added web pages. The ecosystem lists only the thoroughly checked ones, enabling them to go server-free.

Eco-conscious Authentication

For system authentication, no phone numbers or emails are needed. This approach eliminates the need for authentication emails and SMS, which can impressively contribute to the total emissions of CO2.

Eco-Friendly Mining

Though online payments are more eco-friendly than cash usage, they still need to be more sustainable due to central servers. Thus, cryptocurrency is supposed to be more eco-friendly. However, in reality, it is not valid due to mining consequences. For instance, the carbon emissions of Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, are equivalent to that of New Zealand, with both emitting nearly 37 megatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year.

Utopia P2P changes the rules by introducing eco-sustainable mining of Crypton that saves electricity and doesn’t require any extra software or hardware. All a miner needs is a computer.

Low-emission Instant Messenger And Email Service

As we mentioned above, sending a message via a private messaging app has only slightly less carbon footprint than sending an email (one person produces about 3.5lb CO2e in a single day). To reduce the negative impact of online communication on the environment, Utopia has provided its users with two eco-friendly solutions: uMail (an anonymous alternative to standard email services) and uMessenger (a decentralized solution for the instant exchange of text and voice messages with the possibility of voice substitution).

They both don’t require users to enter personal information. However, users can still send media, documents, and regular text messages without worrying about their safety. Interception of traffic within this service is excluded – only the recipient will be able to read the sent message.

“Green” Crypto Exchange And Crypto Wallet

If you have in your uWallet Utopia’s internal cryptocurrency, you can switch to a child product of this platform, CRP.io, to exchange it and make some money. In terms of sustainability, this solution is more optimal, as it is based on a decentralized network, which obviously consumes less electricity than its centralized alternatives. Otherwise, the functionality of this crypto exchange and crypto wallet is similar to other solutions in this industry: they both are anonymous, easy to use, and ensure lightning-fast withdrawals.

API for Green Custom Solutions

And finally, developers can use the Utopia API to make their projects “greener” by integrating it with a website or any other web platform. Thus, they will be able to ensure the complete anonymity of all visitors to the created web resource, as well as add all the eco-friendly features described above.

3. Comparison

Utopia P2P works as a mesh network. Consequently, it is responsible only for scope three emissions. Its carbon footprint was evaluated via Quantis, a trustworthy greenhouse gas protocol according to which the ecosystem’s annual emissions are 42 500 kg.

This number is small, especially compared to other multifunctional tools like Facebook. For instance, in 2020, Facebook generated 38 000 metric tons of CO2, and though it was 94% when it did in 2017, its emissions are still nearly 900 times bigger than the ones of Utopia P2P.

Conclusion

The negative impact of web usage can be reduced significantly with the help of Utopia P2P. This mesh network with a low carbon footprint saves electricity and enables users to make the most of modern web tools without ecological disamenities. You can check it out right now – it’s completely free!