Several environmental organizations in the US, including Greenpeace USA and the Environmental Working Group, have launched a campaign calling for bitcoin to be recoded and reduce US electricity consumption, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The goal of the activists is to convince bitcoin investors and developers to abandon the protocol called “proof of work” (proof-of-work).
It stipulates that users can only receive bitcoins when using significant computing power to solve cryptographic problems, which, in turn, leads to the consumption of large amounts of electricity.
Thus, according to the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance (CCAF), global bitcoin networks annually consume more electricity than Norway – 134.9 terawatt-hours against 124.3 TWh.
An alternative to the “proof-of-work” protocol is the “proof-of-stake” model, which requires less energy. It is expected that the second most popular cryptocurrency, ether, will soon switch to it.
According to various estimates, electricity consumption for ether mining after the transition to the new protocol will be reduced by 99%.
The campaign is sponsored by Chris Larsen, one of the founders of the Ripple cryptocurrency platform. He allocated $5 million for these purposes.
The campaign is not anti-bitcoin, says Michael Brune, former head of the Sierra Club, an environmental organization that advises activists. The main task is to convey that climate change processes have reached a critical point, and bitcoin contributes to global warming to a large extent.
The issue of the impact of the most popular cryptocurrency on the environment has been discussed for many years, WSJ emphasizes.
However, changing the code will not be easy, since any particular company does not own bitcoin, and this will require the consent of almost all participants in the mining process.