$5 Million Campaign Aims to Make Bitcoin More Energy Efficient

A new, $5 million-backed campaign aims to increase awareness for Bitcoin’s elevated energy expenditure – and aims to put pressure on a technological change that reduces its energy consumption and carbon impact. Funded by Ripple Labs co-founder Chris Larsen, the campaign, titled “Change the Code, Not the Climate” aims to increase awareness of technological solutions that could replace Bitcoin’s expensive Proof of Work security model. A model that has seen power usage for transactions on the cryptocurrency hit historic highs in 2021, averaging an estimated 204 TWh power consumption for the year – around the same energy consumption as that of 70 million-citizen Thailand.

The campaign particularly calls for a change towards Proof of Stake, a transaction validation method that could reduce Bitcoin’s energy consumption footprint by 99%. Of course, actually implementing the changes themselves on the live Bitcoin blockchain wouldn’t be so easy as simply flicking a metaphorical code switch: Ethereum’s implementation of such a transition has taken years already – and this with a more modern, more flexible blockchain. Considering the success of implementation for smaller, more technical aspects of Bitcoin mining – such as Blockchain rewards – has already led to forks of the cryptocurrency. One can only imagine what would happen following such a fundamental shift in technology, blockchain security – and miner payout.