Greenpeace: Bitcoin Is ‘Falling Behind’ in the Battle Against Climate Change

Greenpeace, the international, environment-conscious non-governmental organization (NGO), has criticized the lack of action that Bitcoin-related groups have adopted in the battle against climate change. Rolf Skar, of Greenpeace USA, stated that Bitcoin was “falling behind” on this issue, explaining that most Bitcoin-linked groups fail to even acknowledge the ostensible problem.

Greenpeace, the well known environmentalist organization, is criticizing the stance that many Bitcoin-linked companies and organizations have taken regarding the so-called “climate change” phenomena. According to its latest press statement, most of the key players in the Bitcoin environment refuse to acknowledge the problem at all.

Rolf Skar, Special Projects Manager at Greenpeace USA, stated:

Bitcoin is falling even further behind as others in the crypto industry work to tackle the climate crisis. While other crypto technologies are making changes to become more efficient and, and coming up with approaches to address historic climate pollution, Bitcoin ‘mining’ has become dirtier in recent years with coal as its top source of electricity.

The organization advocates for a change in how Bitcoin works, proposing a pivot from the current proof-of-work consensus mechanism, to a less energy-intensive proof-of-stake consensus. This push is known as the “Change the Code, Not the Climate” campaign, which also has the support of the World Economic Forum (WEF). This is exactly the change that Ethereum made on September 15, in an event known as “The Merge.”

In contrast, after the aforementioned pivot, Ethereum is now seen as a more environment-friendly platform. Skar referred to the recently launched Ethereum Climate Platform as an “example of crypto platforms taking the initiative to mitigate the climate crisis.”

The Ethereum Climate Platform is an alliance of Web3 companies that will address the environmental impact of Ethereum’s operations while it was using proof-of-work consensus. The group includes companies such as Microsoft, Huobi, Polygon, Consensys, and Allinfra, and will center its focus on investing in several initiatives that seek to use the current technology to achieve decarbonization.

Among these initiatives are green hydrogen, zero carbon power opportunities, heating, cooling, and other utilities, and carbon removal projects.

As part of its rejection of the operation of the Bitcoin network, Greenpeace stopped accepting bitcoin donations in May 2021, having implemented the functionality in 2014. At the time, the organization noted that “as the amount of energy needed to run bitcoin became clearer, this policy became no longer tenable.”

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