Ripple co-founder (as well as its former CEO) Chris Larsen, who is currently Executive Chairman of Ripple’s Board of Directors, is backing a new campaign to transition Bitcoin from the Proof-of-Work (PoW) network to Proof-of-Stake .
According to a report by Bloomberg, Larsen is launching a new campaign called “Change the Code, Not the Climate” along with several climate activist groups, including Greenpeace. The campaign aims to raise awareness of Bitcoin’s environmental impact and put pressure on the community to move to a proof-of-stake model.
The report claims that Bitcoin’s network, which has been vilified for its energy inefficiency, currently uses as much electricity as Sweden. Larsen said in an interview with Bloomberg that consumption could increase to the same amount of electricity as Japan within five years.
The campaign intends to buy ads over the next month to spread its message, in addition to mobilizing “millions of members” from Greenpeace and the Environmental Working Group for a grassroots push against Bitcoin.
Michael Brune, who is in charge of the campaign, told Bloomberg:
We’re on this campaign for the long haul, but we’re hoping — especially as Bitcoin is now being funded by organizations and individuals who care about climate change — that we can compel leadership to agree that this is an issue that needs to be addressed got to.
Brune listed a number of companies the campaign would like support from, including Goldman Sachs, BlackRock and PayPal.
Larsen, who pointed to Ethereum’s plans to move to proof-of-stake in the coming months, called Bitcoin an “outlier.” He noted that newer protocols like Solana and Cardano were built on low-power technologies. Larsen is reportedly providing $5 million to fund the campaign.
Larsen was immediately criticized by several prominent members of the crypto community, including Messari founder Ryan Selkis and Casa co-founder and CTO Jameson Lopp:
Chris Larsen — who in a just society would end up in jail for maliciously misrepresenting investors he and his team made regarding their XRP sales — is spending money to attack the industry that undermines his multibillion-dollar ill-gotten fortune created dollars. Judas.
— Ryan Selkis 📖 🖊🔑 (@twobitidiot) March 29, 2022
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