Bitcoiner Dan Held: Ethereum Merge Will ‘Put Pressure On Bitcoin’s Energy Consumption’

Some Bitcoiners have been reluctant to say that the Ethereum merger will have any impact on their crypto assets of choice, but don’t count Dan Held among them.

The head of growth marketing at Kraken and prominent Bitcoin influencer, who these days calls himself a Bitcoin “mostamalist” (rather than the drunken “maximalist”), said on the latest episode of Decryptgm podcast that the upcoming Ethereum merger is likely to intensify the attention of environmentalists who decry Bitcoin’s energy consumption.

“I think that will put pressure on Bitcoin’s energy consumption, because they will point to Ethereum and say, ‘Hey, this blockchain’ – I’m talking from a layman’s perspective here – ‘this blockchain doesn’t use that much energy at all, and you spend a lot.’ And it is. They’re not going to understand proof of effort versus proof of work, or anything else.”

The merger will see the Ethereum network shift from a proof-of-work consensus model to proof-of-stake. It is expected to take place on or around September 15.

Switching to the new consensus model should cut the energy consumption of the Ethereum network by 99%, according to the Ethereum Foundation. But despite the added pressure that could be placed on Bitcoin from environmental critics, Held said he still hasn’t heard a credible reason for Bitcoin to abandon proof of work.

First, he referred to some of them security considerations surrounding the merger. Many users have pointed out dominance of a few important stake pools in securing the network, and the fact that public regulators can force them to block transactions from sanctioned entities like Tornado Cash is a major area of ​​concern and questions the notion of Ethereum’s decentralization.

“If there’s a catastrophic failure of the Ethereum protocol because of these trade-offs, well, yeah sure, you reduce your energy consumption by 99%, but then the protocol failed,” Held said. “I’m not saying it will, I’m saying it opens up Ethereum to some technical attack vectors that the Bitcoin community doesn’t want to take on. And that’s why they’re sticking with proof of work.”

Held added that one political element he believes is working in Bitcoin’s favor is the broader reconsideration of ESG (environmental, social and governance) policies. It is an umbrella term that has been applied to everything from investment products, government guidelines and company values.

Some of that has surrounded the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s attempts to define the term and regulate how it is spent on investments. But even more pressing in the ESG upheaval has been uncertainty in Europe about whether the continent will have enough energy to get through the winter.

As of Monday afternoon, Russia, which provided 40% of Europe’s natural gas last year, has cut supplies to the continent indefinitely in response to what it calls “punitive economic sanctions,” according to Russian-language dispatch. Interfax.

“I think we’re seeing a kind of global, anti-woke energy pushback,” Held said. “So it comes at a very, very good time for Bitcoin, when Europe is about to freeze because of its extremely stupid ESG policies… I think that, yes, global warming is caused by humans, and global warming exists. I think that politically charged ESG requirements may or may not help solve the problem.”

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