Source: Thought Catalog – Unsplash
- Greenpeace criticizes Bitcoin for its high energy consumption.
- Bitcoin proponent Michael Saylor defends Bitcoin’s energy consumption.
Following the success of the Ethereum merger, nonprofit environmental firm Greenpeace has criticized Bitcoin for its high rate of consumption. One of the reasons behind the Ethereum merger is a significant reduction in carbon emissions. According to Greenpeace, it has a $1 million advertising budget dedicated to the “Change the code, not the climate” campaign.
The campaign consists of a series of new online ads that aim to change the Bitcoin code and reduce the high rate of energy consumption. Analysts have often reiterated that Bitcoin’s proof-of-work model is an intense, high-energy model. The head of the ad campaign, Michael Brune, said corporate executives and state and federal agencies are aiming to decarbonize as quickly as possible to stop the massive fires and historic floods affecting the world.
Brune went on to say that Ethereum has proven that moving to an energy-efficient protocol is possible. As a result, water, air and climate are less polluted. Brune added that it is time for Bitcoin to take on its climate responsibilities by moving to an efficient consensus mechanism, as other crypto protocols have been doing for many years.
According to Greenpeace, the campaign also aims to draw the attention of famous Bitcoin advocates such as Jack Dorsey’s block, Paypal and Fidelity investments. Therefore, these bitcoin proponents can strive to make bitcoin a more energy-efficient protocol.
Rober Altenburg, senior director at Pennfuture (a nonprofit focused on clean energy economy and protecting Pennsylvania’s land, air and water), said the real costs are being borne by vulnerable communities near crypto miners’ operations . They suffer from the damage to public health and the environment caused by the air pollution these miners create.
He went on to say that the worst case scenario is Bitcoin miners using old, polluting coal-fired power plants to run their operations, as taxpayer money heavily subsidizes this energy source. The merger, which took place on September 15th, saw the move from Ethereum (the second largest crypto) to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus. A CCRI report, accredited by blockchain software company Consensys, says that moving to a PoS model will result in Ethereum’s carbon emissions reduction by about 99.99 percent.
Michael Saylor defends Bitcoin’s energy consumption
Meanwhile, vocal Bitcoin supporter Michael Saylor has claimed that Bitcoin’s power use is the cleanest and most efficient industrial use of electricity. Saylor wrote an in-depth blog post to explain his reasons. The founder of business analytics firm Microstrategy said his company’s analysis found that 59.5 percent of the energy used to mine Bitcoin comes from sustainable sources.
He added that Bitcoin mining energy efficiency has improved by 46 percent annually. Saylor also said there is no basis for comparing Bitcoin and proof-of-stake networks. In his opinion, when used fairly, bitcoin mining (proof-of-work) is the only proven way to create a digital good.
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