Greenpeace, along with other climate groups, and Ripple (XRP) co-founder and executive chairman Chris Larsen, have launched a new campaign to move Bitcoin (BTC) toward a more environmentally friendly consensus model. ‘environment.
Appeal to Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey
The countryside “Change the code, not the climate” aims to put pressure on the main leaders of the industry. In particular, Bitcoin miners and influencers such as Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey are challenged. The goal of the operation is for these industry heavyweights to weigh in for Bitcoin to adopt a new, less energy-intensive mode of consensus.
“If just 30 people — the key miners, exchanges, and core developers who build and contribute Bitcoin’s code — agreed to reinvent proof-of-work mining or switch to a low-power protocol, Bitcoin would cease. to pollute the planet. »
Excerpt from Greenpeace’s manifesto for a change in Bitcoin’s consensus method.
Greenpeace does not attack from the classic angle of saying that Bitcoin pollutes. On the other hand, the NGO is concerned that the energy necessary for the extraction of bitcoins comes mainly from fossil fuels and that miners use waste coal and associated natural gas to fuel their operations.
As a reminder, Greenpeace accepted bitcoin donations for seven years, between 2014 and May 2021. Before announcing that it would refuse bitcoin donations, citing environmental concerns. Around the same time, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stopped accepting bitcoin payments for Tesla vehicles.
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Track Ethereum to Proof of Stake
Ethereum (ETH), which currently relies on the same proof-of-work mechanism as Bitcoin, is in the final stages of a long and complicated process for a new proof-of-stake mechanism. Greenpeace claims that the proof-of-stake mechanism is much less damaging to the environment due to its low power consumption. As such, the NGO would like to see the crypto star switch to the same consensus mechanism.
“Now with the evolution of Ethereum, bitcoin is really an aberration. Some of the newer protocols, Solana and Cardano, are built on low power consumption. »
Chris Larsen, Executive Chairman of Ripple
Larsen said he owns Bitcoin and Ethereum and wants to see these two cryptocurrencies succeed. But according to him, Bitcoin is currently on an unsustainable path.
Some of the biggest bitcoin mining companies hold over 5,000 BTCor over $237 million at current prices, and data shows that those with the most Bitcoin reserves are increasing their hash rate.
Greenpeace makes this clear in its manifesto, saying it understands bitcoin stakeholders have an interest in not changing. Indeed, a change from Bitcoin to Proof of Stake would render their expensive equipment obsolete. Which would mean a huge deadweight loss for these companies. Greenpeace therefore calls on the actors of the ecosystem to find “other creative solutions” so that everyone has an interest in a transition.
For others, proof of work is what makes Bitcoin so secure. And as such, considering a change in the consensus mechanism is a utopia, even a bad idea. They are redirecting Greenpeace and others to where the energy used to mine is coming from, rather than changing the code.
“I would say that the probability of bitcoin ever moving to proof-of-stake is exactly 0%. There is no desire among Bitcoiners to destroy the security of the protocol by making such a change.”
Chris Bendiksen, bitcoin researcher at CoinShares
Greenpeace takes up a well-known cliché which consists in saying that “Bitcoin consumes too much”. While pointing out that it is ultimately the origin of the electricity used more than the network itself that poses a problem. And it is finally on this point that the minors seem to want to evolve. By using both clean energy, but also electricity that would have been surplus and therefore lost because it was impossible to store. As a reminder, Bitcoin only represents 0.08% of CO2 emissions worldwide.
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