Here we go again, now we’ve got Greenpeace trying to smear Bitcoin and what do they suggest? The smart guess these days would be nothing less than switching to Pos!!! This would be comical if it wasn’t so tiresome and coordinated.

Bitcoin is Fueling the Climate Crisis: Greenpeace USA

Greenpeace said that Bitcoin should change its consensus mechanism to proof of stake, just like Ethereum.

Greenpeace USA – an environmental advocacy group – is calling out Bitcoin for having what it calls an “outdated and efficient” code system.

In a tweet on Thursday, the organization doubled down on claims that Bitcoin’s proof of work mechanism is contributing to the climate crisis. Instead, it suggested that the code be swapped out for a less energy-intensive mechanism like proof of stake.

Campaigning Against Mining
The advocacy group’s statements were in response to Ethereum’s successful Merge on Thursday – an event that transitioned the protocol from proof of work to proof of stake.

“Ethereum just proved that cryptocurrency doesn’t have to come at the cost of a livable planet,” said the non-profit. Meanwhile, it criticized Bitcoin for continuing to consume more electricity than “entire countries.”

Bitcoin’s energy consumption can fluctuate as market conditions change, but has generally risen over time as the Bitcoin mining industry expands. According to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, Its theoretical upper bound consumption is roughly 159.63 TW/h right now. By comparison, the entire country of Norway consumes about 124 TW/h, per data from Forbes last year.

Its energy footprint comes down to proof of work – a mechanism for achieving blockchain consensus and security by consuming energy. Specifically, users (miners) consume energy in a race to build Bitcoin’s next block, where winners are rewarded with BTC. Naturally, as Bitcoin’s price rises over time, they are incentivized to burn more energy to earn additional rewards.

As Greenpeace explained, this process is incentivizing miners to bring old coal and gas plants “back to life”, thereby “fueling the climate crisis.”

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” argued the non-profit. “Ethereum – one of Bitcoin’s top competitors — just changed its code system to reduce its energy usage by 99.95%.”

Full article here: https://cryptopotato.com/bitcoin-is-fueling-the-climate-crisis-greenpeace-usa/