Greepeace’s latest marketing stunt in its campaign against the Bitcoin mining industry appears to have backfired, with BTC boosters welcoming its artistic fruit.
Meanwhile, Bitcoiners continue to blast the organization’s efforts to disparage the network as environmentally harmful, remaining committed to its proof of work consensus mechanism.
The Skull of Satoshi
In a tweet on Friday, Greenpeace echoed previous claims that Bitcoin is causing “dangerous amounts of real-world pollution” through fossil fuel consumption incentivized by its “outdated code.”
NEW: #Bitcoin is causing MASSIVE amounts of pollution and has become a major roadblock in our fight to phase out fossil fuels. So we teamed up with @thevonwong to create this giant ???? with laser eyes to help us raise awareness and spark change.
WATCH and SHARE: pic.twitter.com/Av0IORyV5b
— Greenpeace USA (@greenpeaceusa) March 23, 2023
The activist group labeled the tweet with its original hashtag, “#ChangeTheCode” – a movement to see Bitcoin shift its consensus mechanism from proof of work (POW) to proof of stake (POS).
Proof of work is Bitcoin’s way of keeping its blockchain secure by making network users compete with computing power to solve the next block and earn its associated rewards. Proof of stake, however, has users put their crypto at stake when validating blocks and leads to far less energy consumption than the former.
As included in the tweet, the “Skull of Satoshi” is meant to depict the harm caused by that consumption. The eleven-foot-tall creation is built out of computer motherboards, topped with smoke stacks, and illuminated by glowing red eyes often used in Bitcoin bulls’ Twitter profile pictures.
What Bitcoiners Think
Those very same bulls, however, were more amused – even impressed – than they were outraged.
Some climate activists think #Bitcoin is just fake internet money they can safely ignore.
The truth? Bitcoin is causing dangerous amounts of real-world pollution from its ravenous consumption of fossil fuels, all due to its outdated code.
The solution? #ChangeTheCode pic.twitter.com/7wa7BMCzV5
— Greenpeace USA (@greenpeaceusa) March 23, 2023
“Greenpeace accidentally made the most metal bitcoin artwork to date in their misguided anti-PoW campaign,” tweeted Castle Island Ventures co-founder Nic Carter. The popular essayist has previously helped defend Bitcoin’s mining industry as positive for the environment rather than hurtful.
Others like @notgrubles laughed at aspects of the artwork, such as its lack of a single ASIC machine in its construction and its inclusion of nuclear-cooling towers in its construction – which emit clean water vapor.
Some continued to dog Greenpeace for accepting $5 million from Ripple executives to disparage Bitcoin mining in the first place.
Michael Saylor – one of the world’s largest holders of Bitcoin – claimed in September that fears over Bitcoin’s energy consumption are large “lobbyist propaganda” pedaled by altcoin promoters. He and the Bitcoin Mining Council frequently release updates on Bitcoin’s green energy mix, which is considerably higher than other industries.
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