Ripple Chairman Larsen Provides $5M to Force Bitcoin Switch From PoW

Environmental activists Greenpeace, together with Chris Larsen, Ripple’s chairman, are launching a campaign against Bitcoin for its supposed effect on the climate. 

Larsen Aids  Campaign With $5M

As stated in the report, the new campaign titled “Change the Code, Not the Climate” is tailored towards the change of Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus which requires the use of mining hardware that consumes large amounts of energy to process transactions. 

The campaign will run ads starting next month through major publications such as Greenpeace, Environmental Working Group and other local climate activists groups. 

When asked in an interview, Larsen said that Bitcoin may consume as much power as Japan in five years, adding that he will provide $5 million to support the campaign. 

According to him, Bitcoin may be unable to receive investor support if its protocol remains the same. 

“Now with ethereum changing, Bitcoin really is the outlier. Some of the newer protocols – Solana, Cardano – are built on low energy. I want to see bitcoin and ethereum succeed,” the Ripple chairman said. 

More Campaign Supporters

The Change the Code campaign has garnered attention from prominent individuals as well as corporations, some of whom are involved in bitcoin and yet care about the climate. Some of the institutions include Goldman Sachs, PayPal, BlackRock, Venmo and Fidelity. 

Michael Brune, chairman of the campaign, in a statement noted that the campaign is counting on several factors to help achieve its aim. 

“We are in this campaign for the long haul, but we are hoping – particularly since bitcoin is now being financed by entities and individuals who care about climate change – that we can compel leadership to agree that this is a problem that needs to be addressed,” said Bruno.

Meanwhile, this is not the first time a Ripple executive has expressed concerns about Bitcoin’s energy consumption and its impact on the environment. 

Back in 2020, Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse opined that energy consumption for Bitcoin mining is a massive waste, citing a report that Bitcoin has been using more power to process transactions than most British households do in two months. 

While some spectators agreed with his opinion, others simply said Garlinghouse was trying to discredit the leading cryptocurrency.

Meanwhile, the use of renewable energy for Bitcoin mining is becoming more common than ever. Coinfomania reported mid-last year that the Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) revealed that about 56% of the energy used for bitcoin mining in Q2 2021 was from renewable energy.

Source: https://coinfomania.com/larsen-provides-5m-bitcoin-pow-campaign/#utm_source=rss&%23038;utm_medium=rss&%23038;utm_campaign=larsen-provides-5m-bitcoin-pow-campaign