Ripple’s Chris Larsen blasted for ‘hubristic war on Bitcoin’

Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen has been blasted by the Bitcoin community for his $5 million contribution toward a campaign calling for a change of Bitcoin’s consensus mechanism.

Greenpeace, an environmental campaign organisation founded in 1970, on Tuesday unveiled a “Change the Code, Not the Climate” ad campaign targeting Bitcoin. 

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In it, the organisation urges players within the BTC community, especially exchanges, miners and ‘a handful’ of billionaires to spearhead Bitcoin’s change from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus network to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network.

They say Ethereum did/is doing it and that Bitcoin should take this eco-friendly path too.

Bitcoiners have said ‘NO Thank You’ and then turned their anger and Larsen’s over his views and more disappointingly, for paying $5 million towards the campaign.

A ‘Judas’ in a $5 million betrayal

The reactions were sharp, with some Bitcoiners pulling no punches in expressing dismay at Larsen.

Ryan Selkis the founder of Messari was more scathing:

“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 multibillion-dollar fortune. Judas,” he tweeted.

Tuur Demeester, the founder of Adamant Capital, was less than impressed by Larsen’s view that the change could be effected by 20 to 30 individuals.

Chris Larsen’s hubristic war on bitcoin: “Make the damn code change! I just don’t think it’s going to happen voluntarily.” Thinks that bitcoin is run by “20 to 30 very influential, very wealthy people“.

Bitcoin on-chain analyst Willy Woo wondered what Larsen’s “real agenda” is.

“None of what he says makes any sense unless you’re outside of the industry and have not done the research. What’s is real agenda? He made his money committing securities fraud.”

Nic Carter, another Bitcoin proponent unimpressed by the Ripple executive’s comments noted: 

Chris’ deep thoughts on the topic of bitcoin mining are equivalent to a nematode contemplating linear algebra”

Earlier, Carter had called Larsen’s effort “contrived” and that he (Larsen) has previously tried to discourage mining on renewable energy.

Larsen maintains PoW is ‘unsustainable’

Amid all the condemnation, Larsen says he only wants to see Bitcoin succeed as it contributes “to the fight against climate change.” However, he cautions that Bitcoin is an “unsustainable” path if it continues to rely on PoW.

The current path PoW is on is unsustainable, and will be met with a climate wall. This is the last thing I want – the crypto industry needs Bitcoin to continue to succeed. This industry is also one that embraces change – why is acknowledging this fact so controversial?!”

In a comment after an interview with Anthony Pompliano, Larsen added: “I’ll reiterate – my goal is to create awareness of the problem, and discuss possible solutions. If a full validation protocol switch is not palatable to Bitcoiners, that’s fine – you can still improve PoW to keep the fundamentals (security, etc) but become carbon neutral or neg.”

The Bitcoin and climate change question is not new and with so much going on around ESG and so on, it’s unlikely the $5 million campaign will be the last of it.