In a recent Earth Day blog post, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen urges Bitcoin miners, and core developers to consider abandoning the Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism.
Let’s work with the people who create and contribute to the Bitcoin code, key miners, exchanges, and core developers-to consider opting out of PoW.
Larsen argues that such a change would be very important for Bitcoin to remain the dominant cryptocurrency.
He warns that institutional investors will undoubtedly face pressure from regulators to sell their assets because of PoW’s huge carbon footprint.
He adds that Ethereum should be praised for its decision to switch to Proof-of-Stake.
Larsen argues that Bitcoin should move to either PoS, which now accounts for 43 percent of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization, or the Federated Consensus XRP Ledger.
The ex-CEO of Ripple when said that China could eventually destroy Bitcoin. His statement drew widespread criticism in the crypto community.
The crypto community has lots to celebrate this Earth Day. Many are working towards a clean energy future — however, transitioning to 100% renewables only solves part of the problem. My belief: the Bitcoin community should consider moving from PoW. 1/5 https://t.co/RophJqMmjW
— Chris Larsen (@chrislarsensf) April 21, 2021
Some Bitcoin advocates use a number of questionable claims / greenwash the issue. I refute these arguments including abt trapped energy, an “unlimited” renewable energy supply, and costs of solar/wind vs fossil fuels (partly cheaper in US, but that’s far from true globally…) 3/5
— Chris Larsen (@chrislarsensf) April 21, 2021
While this Medium post reflects my personal views (not that of Ripple, Rippleworks, etc), as citizens of the world, this is a topic we should all care about. 5/5
— Chris Larsen (@chrislarsensf) April 21, 2021