Reducing Crypto Energy Use with a Simple Code Change

A few people are using Bitcoin to make digital payments. However, Bitcoin transactions consume more energy than ever before. As a result, Bitcoin’s carbon footprint (114 million tonnes per year) is canceling other environmental profits. There is an estimation that the use of electric vehicles worldwide prevents the release of about 50 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. This is less than half of what Bitcoin produces each year. There has been an increase in Bitcoin’s carbon footprint by a factor of five in just two years. This is due to the exponential growth of “mining” it with fossil fuels. On the other hand, Greenpeace and the Environmental Working Group claim that a simple software update to Bitcoin can resolve all of this (i.e., changing its code). Change the Code, Not the Climate is their new campaign. With this campaign, they ask Bitcoin software developers to replace the network’s inefficient system for verifying transactions with one that is more environmentally friendly. They claim that making the change would reduce Bitcoin’s carbon footprint by 99.9%. How Is This So? This code change would be simple to implement in Bitcoin. According to Greenpeace, the switch to PoS (Proof of Work) would require the collaboration of just thirty entities. This will include the largest mining operations and exchanges, such as Coinbase, Binance, and code developers. However, this does not account for the fact that everyone woul...