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ESG Reporting

The ESG module produces daily estimates of the carbon emissions (kg CO2) and energy consumption (kWh) attributable to operating the Gnosis Chain validator network. Every metric is published with full uncertainty bounds so that downstream consumers can assess confidence in the reported figures.

What's in this section

This section covers the full ESG methodology, data pipeline, and reporting tools. For dbt model schemas and SQL query examples, see the ESG Model Catalog.

Key Outputs

Metric Unit Granularity Uncertainty
Network carbon footprint kg CO2 / day Daily 95% CI
Network energy consumption kWh / day Daily 95% CI
Per-validator carbon footprint g CO2 / validator / day Daily 95% CI
Per-validator energy consumption Wh / validator / day Daily 95% CI
Carbon intensity factor gCO2 / kWh Daily By country
Node population estimate Nodes Daily 95% CI (Chao-1)

Estimation Pipeline

The end-to-end calculation follows five sequential stages, each implemented as one or more dbt models:

flowchart LR
    A["Nebula P2P Crawl"] --> B["IP Enrichment\n& Geolocation"]
    B --> C["Chao-1\nPopulation\nEstimation"]
    C --> D["Node\nClassification"]
    D --> E["Power Model\n(CCRI)"]
    D --> F["Carbon Intensity\n(Ember)"]
    E --> G["Daily Carbon\nFootprint\n+ Uncertainty"]
    F --> G
Stage Method Documentation
1. Population estimation Chao-1 nonparametric estimator + failure recovery Node Population
2. Node classification ASN-based classification into Home / Professional / Cloud Node Classification
3. Power consumption CCRI hardware profiles, client efficiency, PUE Power Model
4. Carbon intensity Ember electricity data, seasonal adjustments Carbon Intensity
5. Final footprint Per-category, per-country aggregation + uncertainty propagation Carbon Footprint

Gnosis Chain vs. Other Networks

Gnosis Chain uses Proof-of-Stake consensus with only 1 GNO per validator, resulting in one of the lowest energy footprints of any blockchain network:

Network Consensus Annual Energy (est.) Ratio
Gnosis Chain Proof-of-Stake (1 GNO) ~500--1,000 MWh 1x
Ethereum Proof-of-Stake (32 ETH) ~2,600 MWh ~3--5x
Bitcoin Proof-of-Work ~130,000,000 MWh ~150,000x

Orders of Magnitude

Gnosis Chain's energy consumption is approximately 5 orders of magnitude lower than Bitcoin and roughly 3x lower than Ethereum (due to lower hardware requirements per validator).

Data Sources

The ESG module combines data from multiple external and internal sources:

Source Database Used For
Nebula P2P crawler nebula Node discovery, peer contact frequency
IP geolocation crawler crawlers_data ASN classification, country mapping
Ember Global Electricity Review crawlers_data Country-level carbon intensity factors
Consensus layer data consensus Active validator counts, client distribution
CCRI 2022 Study Built-in Hardware power consumption profiles

Section Guide

  • Node Population

    Chao-1 nonparametric estimator for hidden node discovery, failure-recovery augmentation, and population confidence intervals.

  • Node Classification

    ASN-based classification of validators into Home Staker, Professional, and Cloud Hosted archetypes.

  • Power Model

    CCRI hardware profiles, per-client efficiency multipliers, diversity bonus, and PUE factors.

  • Carbon Intensity

    Ember electricity data integration, grid-type uncertainty, seasonal adjustments, and fallback hierarchy.

  • Carbon Footprint

    Final emissions formula, uncertainty propagation, confidence intervals, limitations, and references.

  • Data Pipeline

    Full dbt model DAG with detailed specs for all 18 ESG models across staging, intermediate, and mart layers.

  • Dashboard & API

    ESG dashboard tabs, available API endpoints, response schemas, and query examples.