Bearing environmental consciousness in mind, Greenpeace, Chris Larsen, co-founder and executive chairman of Ripple, other climate groups have started a new campaign aimed at moving Bitcoin’s (BTC) code to a more ecologically friendly model.
The “Change the code, not the climate” campaign tries to persuade important industry executives, Bitcoin miners, and influencers like Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey to switch to a new consensus model.
“If only 30 people — the key miners, exchanges, and core developers who build and contribute to Bitcoin’s code — agreed to reinvent proof-of-work mining or move to a low-energy protocol, Bitcoin would stop polluting the planet.”
Greenpeace is concerned about Bitcoin’s energy consumption
Greenpeace is concerned that the energy necessary to mine Bitcoin is primarily derived from fossil fuels, and that miners are fueling their operations with coal waste and associated natural gas.
Greenpeace accepted Bitcoin donations for seven years, from 2014 until May 2021, before stating that it would no longer accept them due to environmental concerns. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, ceased taking Bitcoin payments for Tesla vehicles at the same time.
Ethereum (ETH), which now uses the same proof-of-work algorithm as Bitcoin, is nearing the end of a long and difficult transition to a new proof-of-stake (PoS) algorithm. Greenpeace claims that proof-of-stake is less hazardous to the environment because it uses less energy.
Larsen doubts Bitcoin will want migration to the PoS algorithm
“Now that Ethereum is shifting, Bitcoin really is the outlier,” Larsen told Bloomberg in a March 29 interview. He continued, “Some of the newer protocols, such as Solana and Cardano, are built on low energy.”
Larsen indicated that he owns both Bitcoin and Ethereum and that he wants to see both prosper, but thinks Bitcoin is on an unsustainable path. He also stated that if he had any reservations about Bitcoin as a rival to Ripple, he would allow it to continue.
Some of the largest Bitcoin mining companies retain more than 5,000 BTC, which is worth more than $237 million at current prices, and research reveals that the organizations with the most Bitcoin reserves are raising their hash rate.
Greenpeace acknowledges this in its manifesto, stating that Bitcoin stakeholders have an incentive not to change because doing so would reduce the value of their pricey technology, necessitating sunk costs or “other creative solutions.”
According to the study, Chris Bendiksen, a Bitcoin researcher at CoinShares, said:
“I’d put the chance of Bitcoin ever moving to PoS at exactly 0%. There is no appetite among Bitcoiners to destroy the security of the protocol by making such a move.”
