Bitcoin climate groups: Cut the pollution, and BS

Ethereum’s energy-efficient “merger” leaves bitcoin as a lone cryptocurrency climate polluter

New $1 million ad campaign pressures bitcoin investors to meet or beat ethereum’s benchmark

WASHINGTON – As ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, dramatically reduces its climate pollution, environmental groups have increased pressure on bitcoin to meet or beat ethereum’s environmental performance. Ethereum’s long-awaited “merge” to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism uses 99.95 percent less energy, leaving bitcoin as the largest cryptocurrency using the outdated high-energy proof-of-work consensus mechanism.

«Change the code, not the climateThe campaign will now intensify its efforts with a new $1 million online adsand Greenpeace launched one petition is urging Fidelity Investments to push bitcoin to follow ethereum’s lead in switching to an energy-saving protocol that dramatically reduces the cryptocurrency’s contribution to the climate crisis.

“With fires raging around the world and historic floods destroying lives and livelihoods, state, federal and business leaders are scrambling to decarbonize as quickly as possible. Ethereum has shown that it is possible to switch to an energy-efficient protocol with far less climate, air and water pollution. Other cryptocurrency protocols have operated on efficient consensus mechanisms for years. Bitcoin has become the extreme, defiantly refusing to accept its climate responsibility,” said Michael Brune, director of the “Change the Code, Not the Climate” campaign.

The “Change the Code, Not the Climate” campaign was launched in March to advocate for a bitcoin code change that would reduce the massive power consumption of miners. Prior to the campaign launch, there was little national attention to bitcoin’s environmental, social and economic impacts, including taxpayer subsidization of miners to halt operations to prevent blackouts, by federal and state policymakers.

The landscape is now changing. Campaign officials are in active discussions with key members of Congress and the Biden administration. Lawmakers are considering legislation, including mining moratoriums, that would increase transparency about mining locations, energy sources used and emissions for each operation. President Biden signed an order in March highlighting the connection between cryptocurrency mining and the climate crisis.

The campaign calls on its biggest corporate partners and institutional investors — Fidelity Investments, PayPal and Jack Dorsey’s Block, among others — to push bitcoin to move away from a high-energy proof-of-work protocol. The Ethereum merger puts more pressure on these investors to use their financial influence for the climate and to help communities suffering from bitcoin mining.

Quote from Ken Cook, President, Environmental Working Group

“Ethereum has proven that it is possible to take the leap and change the protocol to a less electricity-intensive method by switching to proof of stake and dramatically reduce the energy use and greenhouse gas pollution associated with dirty proof-of-work protocols. It is time for bitcoin and its largest investors is taking similar steps to reduce its heavy reliance on dirty electricity grids and cheap fossil energy sources – or risk becoming the cryptocurrency of the past.”

Quote from Rolf Skar, special project manager, Greenpeace USA

“We are in a climate crisis and everyone has a responsibility to act. With ethereum’s transition to an energy-efficient protocol, it’s time for bitcoin to change. Companies that promote and profit from bitcoin, such as Fidelity Investments, BlackRock, Paypal and Block, have a responsibility to be part of building a better, climate-friendly bitcoin.”

Quote from Lane Boldman, Executive Director, Kentucky Conservation Committee

“If ethereum can change the code to cut air pollution and climate disruption, why can’t bitcoin? Kentuckians in coal-mining communities have suffered greatly in recent weeks from deadly flooding, intensified by unreclaimed and abandoned mine land from fossil fuel extraction, and have been dealing with the consequences for more than a century as wealth goes elsewhere. It is unacceptable that a supposedly “innovative” technology like bitcoin needlessly extends the life of fossil fuels through this wasteful process that affects our air and our land.“

Quote from Robert Altenburg, Senior Director of Energy and Climate, PennFuture

“We applaud ethereum’s transition to a much more efficient validation system. Here in Pennsylvania where bitcoin is heavily dependent on burning coal waste, we have experienced the worst bitcoin has to offer. Cryptominers do not pay the real costs of public health and environmental damage caused by the air pollution they create – instead, the vulnerable communities near these operations pay the price. Even worse, bitcoin miners are using these old, polluting coal plants to run their operations because we—the taxpayers and taxpayers—are heavily subsidizing them.“

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About Change the code, not the climate

Change the Code, Not the Climate is a campaign launched by the Environmental Working Group, Greenpeace USA and several local organizations to pressure bitcoin, its miners and investors to support a change in software code that could abolish the intensive use of and dependence on the dirt. sources of electricity.