Bitcoin ‘lags behind’ in the fight against climate change

Greenpeace, the international non-governmental organization (NGO) concerned with the environment, has criticized the lack of action by Bitcoin-related groups in the fight against climate change. Rolf Skar of Greenpeace USA said that Bitcoin was “lagging behind” on this issue, explaining that most Bitcoin-related groups don’t even acknowledge the supposed problem.

Greenpeace denounces Bitcoin’s lack of action

Greenpeace, the well-known environmentalist organization, criticizes the position taken by many companies and organizations linked to Bitcoin regarding the phenomenon of “climate change“. According to its latest press release, most of the key players in the Bitcoin environment refuse to acknowledge the problem.

Rolf Skar, special projects manager at Greenpeace USA, reported:

Bitcoin is falling further behind as other crypto players work to combat the climate crisis. As other crypto technologies strive to become more efficient and find solutions to combat historical climate pollution, bitcoin mining has become dirtier in recent years, with coal being its primary source of electricity.

The organization advocates for a change in the way Bitcoin works, proposing to move from the current “consensus” mechanism ofproof-of-work” to a consensus of the type “proof-of-stake” less energy intensive. This initiative is known as the “Change the code, not the climate“, which also has the support of the World Economic Forum (WEF). This is exactly the change Ethereum made on September 15, at an event known as “The Merge“.

The pivot of Ethereum

On the other hand, after the aforementioned pivot, Ethereum is now seen as a more environmentally friendly platform. Skar referred to the recently launched Ethereum Climate Platform as a “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 when it used proof-of-work consensus. The group includes companies such as Microsoft, Huobi, Polygon, Consensys and Allinfra, and will focus on investing in several initiatives to use current technology to achieve decarbonization.

These initiatives include green hydrogen, carbon-free energy opportunities, heating, cooling and other utilities, and carbon removal projects.

As part of its rejection of the Bitcoin network’s operation, Greenpeace stopped accepting Bitcoin donations in May 2021, after implementing the feature in 2014. At the time, the organization noted that “as the amount of energy required to run bitcoin became clearer, this policy was no longer tenable.“