Greenpeace hits BlackRock
3 min readThe Bitcoin logo shone above the impressive skyline of New York City (NYC) yesterday, July 18th. Not as the latest coup by the Bitcoin collective Bitman, which has already made the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt glow orange. But as part of Greenpeace USA’s anti-Bitcoin campaign. The environmental organization has been trying to change the code of Bitcoin for over a year – in vain. The new attempt hits BlackRock and other financial institutions.
“With stunning projections onto prominent NYC buildings, Greenpeace USA highlights the damaging climate impact of financial giants JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock’s Bitcoin investments,” the NGO said in a statement press release. Admittedly, the Bitcoin logo near Times Square in the heart of the bustling city is a truly breathtaking sight. However, the context is wrong. in one 48-page report have found out how harmful bitcoin really is for the environment. Greenpeace summarized the results in a video.
Greenpeace has deactivated the comment function on YouTube for the time being. On Twitter, however, the environmental organization is met with the full frustration of the Bitcoin scene. With memes, insults, but also constructive criticism, the community settles accounts with the anti-Bitcoin campaign. Environmental activist Daniel Batten already has the Greenpeace report analyzed and comes to a conclusion:
Just rebutted @greenpeaceusa's report on Bitcoin Mininghttps://t.co/RU16gMhIhd
CONCLUSION
Owing to its many inaccuracies, exclusions, use of flawed source data, absence of evidence to support many assertions, lack of objective evaluation of complete environmental impact and…— Daniel Batten (@DSBatten) July 17, 2023
BlackRock CEO Now Bitcoin Maxi?
Greenpeace is certain: “Every scientific report makes it clear that we must move away from fossil fuels quickly if we want to keep our planet habitable.” However, “the influential financial leaders” would set the planet back years. Featured in the video: BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon – with laser eyes. After all: Larry Fink has been noticed more often as a Bitcoin advocate in recent weeks.
With the images, Greenpeace USA wants to hold the financial giants “responsible for the effects of their Bitcoin bets on the climate,” it says. The public is also invited to join the movement. The aim of the petition named “Change the code, not the climate“: Change Bitcoin’s consensus mechanism to Proof of Stake.
Bitcoin PoS: Greenpeace can do it themselves
To attract supporters for the petition, Greenpeace lists four facts about Bitcoin. These should prove how harmful the cryptocurrency is under the current consensus mechanism. The environmental organization does not recognize the positive aspects of the decentralized financial infrastructure. It is precisely this decentralization that could help Greenpeace to implement their project.
New ideas can be suggested via Github. With a so-called “pull request” Greenpeace could discuss its plans with the community. In addition, the Bitcoin source code is publicly available and accessible to everyone. Greenpeace could also simply change the code themselves. However, it is questionable whether Bitcoin PoS will meet with the hoped-for approval. The connection to Chris Larsen is also considered controversial. The Ripple founder supports the project and has already donated 5 million US dollars.
This is how Bitcoin is driving the energy transition
Contrary to the opinion of many critics: Energy-intensive Bitcoin mining could have the potential to help shape the energy transition. The thesis: Because mining systems can be switched on and off very flexibly, they are able to act as spontaneous buyers for surplus production. With them, the utilization of energy networks could not only be controlled better, but regenerative energies could become profitable more quickly thanks to the Bitcoin-related cross-financing.
Some companies use bitcoin mining to monetize electricity costs, for example. This is also the case for a tulip grower from the Netherlands, who has been using Bitcoin for a long time anyway – because of the environment.
