Ripple Co-Founder Chris Larsen Faces Backlash Over BTC Source Code Change Campaign

Earlier this week, Chris Larsen, the co-founder of embattled blockchain payments firm Ripple Labs Inc shared an update about his new campaign dubbed “Change the Code, Not the Climate”. He is collaborating with climate-focused bodies Greenpeace and the Sierra Club.

Larsen’s ultimate focus of the campaign is to persuade members of the Bitcoin community to come together in a bid to change the Bitcoin source code from the high energy-consuming Proof-of-Work (PoW) to the better conservative Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocol. 

While Larsen claims his motives are pure and directed toward ensuring the long-term success of the Bitcoin protocol, prominent members of the ecosystem thought otherwise, with many expressing their displeasure with his pursuits.

Ryan Selkis, the founder of data research and analytics platform, Messari, called Larsen a ‘Judas’ as he believes the billionaire Ripple founder is trying to bite the fingers that fed him.

“Chris Larsen – who in a just society would be in jail for the bad faith investor misrepresentations he and his team made regarding their XRP sales – is spending money attacking the industry that created his ill-gotten multi-billion dollar fortune. Judas,” Ryan said in a tweet.

It is not uncommon to make changes to blockchain protocols, especially open-sourced ones like the Bitcoin Network. However, to make such changes, the proposals must pass through a set of processes, one of which Larsen’s did not pass through.

“I am unable to find your Bitcoin Improvement Proposal submission, nor can I find any discussions initiated by you on the development mailing list. Please follow the process if you wish to be taken seriously,” a prominent Twitter Bitcoiner, Jameson Lopp said in a tweet tagging the brains behind the campaign, including the accounts of Greenpeace, Chris Larsen, and Michael Brune of Sierra Club.

With the backlash received, it is obvious that many may reject the proposal from Larsen if at all it makes it down to the development mailing list. This may leave the Bitcoin community with the option of advocating for the embrace of renewable energy sources to appease staunch environmentalists.

Image source: Chris Larsen