Green activists and crypto diehards call for changes to Bitcoin’s code
Bitcoin is under attack for its environmental impact with green activists joining forces with crypto diehards as part of a new campaign.
Climate activists groups including Greenpeace as well as Chris Larsen, the co-founder of Ripple, are trying to decrease the energy usage of the world’s most popular crypto currency.
The activists are behind the “Change the Code, Not the Climate” campaign, designed to pressure the Bitcoin community into changing the energy intensive mining process used to validate transactions and create new coins.
“Today’s crypto industry is blessed with incredible talent, unlimited capital and is on a mission to make the world better,” Larsen, who is helping to fund the campaign, wrote on Twitter. “I truly believe it can turn this climate problem into a solution – what if miners were incentivized to remove carbon from the atmosphere?”
Bitcoin’s carbon footprint has become a major sticking point for lawmakers and regulators. Mining Bitcoin consumes more energy annually than entire countries including Ukraine and Norway, according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index.
Certain EU regulators and lawmakers have proposed a ban on “Proof-of-Work” mining processes, used by crypto projects including Bitcoin, on the grounds that such an energy intensive process is incompatible with European climate change commitments and sustainability goals.
The world’s second largest crypto currency by market capitalisation, Ethereum, has already announced plans to move its network to “Proof-of-Stake.”
Larsen will provide $5m to Greenpeace USA, the Environmental Working Group and others to run ads in major media outlets including The New York Times, Politico and The Wall Street Journal which stress Bitcoin’s environmental impact and advocate for change.
Some of the ads are aimed at crypto proponents with celebrity status including Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey, the Wall Street Journal first reported.
Read more: Crypto mining under fire as EU regulator sounds alarm