Greenpeace’s new ‘Skull of Satoshi’ artwork hits meme status among Bitcoin fans
As Greenpeace USA took to Twitter to proclaim the leading cryptocurrency’s “devouring consumption of fossil fuels” and unveil a unique new piece of art, die-hard Bitcoin supporters were unanimous in their criticism of the campaign.
The organization teamed up with Canadian arts activist Benjamin Von Wong to unveil the “Skull of Satoshi” — an 11-foot skull with red eyes, smoking stacks on its head, and an army of shadowy supercoders at its base.
“Can’t wait to buy this skull and put it next to the gas generator that powers one of my off-grid bitcoin mines,” Marty Bent, founder of Bitcoin media company TFTC, commented on the video showing the process of how the installation was created.
Many have ironically embraced the installation, with some calling it “badass” and even use it as one new profile picture.
The primary art element, the skull itself, is made with electronic waste donated by Unirecycle, “representing the millions of computers used to validate Bitcoin transactions, known as mining.”
Even this aspect of the installation was mocked by crypto enthusiasts.
“It seems that Greenpeace was unable to obtain a single Bitcoin ASIC PCB for their propaganda. It’s all general purpose motherboards, some CPU coolers, a couple of old PCI Ethernet NICs, maybe some old pre- Bitcoin GPUs? Hilarious,” wrote ponders as he asks if Greenpeace is demonizing nuclear power now.
Change Bitcoin’s code
Although the installation is new, the “Change the Code, Not the Climate” initiative it represents was first launched a year ago.
The main goal is to make Bitcoin transition from its currency proof-of-pork (PoW) consensus algorithm to a more environmentally friendly one proof of effort (Pos) mechanism.
The actual process of changing Bitcoin is open as the code is also open source. Individuals, including Green Peace, only need to reach consensus among developers after submitting a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal, or BIP. From there, the proposal must also win over the mining community, convincing them to operate with the newly updated software.
But given the infamous block size wars, a year-long battle to increase how much data can be stored in each of Bitcoin’s blocks, changing the network’s code is easier said than done.
“Everyone can #ChangeTheCode. Just like anyone can change the rules of chess,” answered one of the commentators. “Go on, good luck finding someone to play with.”
Von Wong also tweeted, “PoS will never work for Bitcoin. It goes against its decentralized ethos!”
