Energy-Based Economic Sustainability Protocols

In this paper, a sustainability framework for global and scalable payment systems is introduced. It is based on energy and resource consumption and pollutant classes and is inspired by ISO14040 principles. This paper aims to provide guidance for the implementation of blockchain-based technologies in a Life-Cycle Assessment methodology. The impact criteria adopted in this first approximation are at the stakeholders' level. Enhancement through Enterprise Resource Planning software integration is considered to extend the impact allocation to the level of products and services. The system is designed on environmental economic models based on resources. A continuous depletion in the quality of exchangeable output is also modelled with respect to raw material consumption. We also consider the geophysical coordinates of pollutant emissions and the concurrent emission of pollutants affecting the quality of such outputs. This framework aims to be initially applied to the CO2eq indicator, which is identified by a set of aerial pollutants with global warming potential as proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Nonetheless, an incentive scheme within the so-defined payment system is possible and herein suggested, including the extension to other impact criteria (e.g., pollutants released in water and soil). Multiple approximations are made in order to overcome the difficulty in sampling reservoirs of natural resources, such as (1) disregarding regeneration rate and physical limits of raw material reservoirs and (2) estimating the minimum amount of pollutants affecting the perceived quality of economic transactions. Eventually, sampling policies are outlined as fundamental tactics to foster the effectiveness of this framework.

Automated summary

This paper introduces a sustainability framework for global and scalable payment systems, based on energy and resource consumption and pollutant classes. The framework is designed for the implementation of blockchain-based technologies in a Life-Cycle Assessment methodology. It aims to consider the impacts at stakeholders' level and extend the impact allocation to the level of products and services through software integration.