Environmental groups want Bitcoin to follow Ethereum’s example as it moves to Proof of Stake

Moving the Ethereum blockchain from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake reduced energy usage by over 99%. Also, many climate activists are calling for Bitcoin to follow suit.

In a post-merger Thursday notice, the US-based Environmental Working Group (EWG) aims to encourage people to go green instead of using “outdated protocols” like Bitcoin (BTC). announced the launch of a $1 million campaign. prisoner of war. The announcement comes as environmental activist group Greenpeace has filed a direct petition with Fidelity Investments to encourage the transition to PoS.

“Other cryptocurrency protocols have been operating with efficient consensus mechanisms for years,” said Michael Brune, director of the EWG campaign. categorically rejects.”

From Climate Change Organizations to Bitcoin: Reduce Pollution, BS https://t.co/qExsfJfDLd

— EWG (@ewg) September 15, 2022

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Scott Faber, EWG’s senior vice president of government affairs, said merge events are generally “climate-friendly” in reducing the energy requirements of the Ethereum blockchain. suggested there is. Citing his September report from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, he said that cryptocurrencies (notably his PoW staking) contributed significantly to energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, and that in the United States I concluded that it uses more power than a home computer.

“Merge proves that code can be changed,” says Faber. “Merge Proves Digital Assets That Rely on Proof of Work Can Be Changed to Proof of Stake and Use Much Less Power […] We expect the Bitcoin community to follow Ethereum. “

Faber added that he would support any efforts by the White House to set energy standards that would impact crypto miners, adding that regulators “shouldn’t sit on the sidelines and hope for the best,” but given the climate crisis. He said it needed to act “immediately.”

“We are agnostic. We support cryptocurrencies. We are concerned about the increase and the climate pollution that is an inevitable consequence of more and more electricity use.”

Some industry leaders oppose moving the Bitcoin blockchain to PoS, citing security reasons, implications for decentralization of the network, and how US regulators treat the coin. In a blog post Wednesday, MicroStrategy co-founder Michael Saylor argued that PoW is “the only proven method for creating digital goods” like Bitcoin, arguing that the entire cryptocurrency world ‘s energy usage was a “rounding error”, suggesting that “neither was a problem”. Nor is it a solution to the climate crisis.

“Regulators and legal experts have repeatedly pointed out that proof-of-stake networks are likely to be securities, not commodities, and we can expect them to be treated as such over time,” Thaler said. said. “PoS cryptocurrencies may be suitable for certain applications, but they are not suitable for functioning as global open fair money or global open payment networks. It makes no sense to compare it to a coin.”

William Szamosszegi, CEO of Bitcoin mining platform Sazmining, told Cointelegraph in May:

“The fundamental mistake of […] Critics of Bitcoin’s energy consumption claim that they judge Bitcoin by its “ingredients” rather than its value proposition. […] A new invention should be judged by the extent to which it solves a social problem. PoW enables a decentralized currency backed by sound money and real world energy. With PoS this is probably impossible to achieve. “

Related: Environmental groups urge US government to take action against crypto miners

Many U.S. lawmakers have targeted major bitcoin miners, with members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in August asking mining companies to provide information about their facility’s energy consumption, energy sources, and percentage of renewable energy. requested to provide At the state level, the state of New York proposed to impose a two-year moratorium on her PoW mining. This is a law that also prohibits license renewals unless an existing business operates on his 100% renewable energy.