Crypto executive, green groups launch effort to slash bitcoin’s energy use

The system requires increasing amounts of computing power and is eating up about 137 terawatt-hours of electricity annually, more than Norway, according to an estimate by the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance. Switching to an alternative could slash bitcoin’s electricity needs by 99.9 percent, some crypto experts say.

“This campaign is not anti-bitcoin,” said Chris Larsen, the billionaire co-founder of crypto company Ripple. “I think the best thing that could happen for the bitcoin community is for it to become much more energy-efficient and part of the climate change solution.”

Larsen, who said he contributed $5 million to launch the campaign, noted that bitcoin’s energy consumption has climbed tenfold in five years, putting the cryptocurrency on track to rival Japan’s usage in the next five years. “It’s on an unsustainable pathway,” he said.

The coalition behind the campaign also includes the Environmental Working Group and several local environmental organizations fighting bitcoin mining facilities in their areas.

The effort aims to generate grass-roots pressure on major bitcoin supporters to force a change in the cryptocurrency’s code. More recent investors in the digital asset, including those on Wall Street who have made public commitments to addressing climate change, are “natural allies,” said Michael Brune, a former president of the environmental group Sierra Club, who is running the campaign.

The campaign is targeting a handful of them with digital ads in the Wall Street Journal and Politico, among other national news outlets. “Hey Fidelity,” reads one. “The Planet’s Not Ready for Early Retirement.” Another calls out Tesla CEO Elon Musk: “Hey Elon Musk: Please Use Your Power to Stop Bitcoin from Wasting Ours.”

Musk has done an about-face on bitcoin, announcing last year that Tesla would no longer accept the cryptocurrency as payment for its vehicles until bitcoin miners switched to at least 50 percent renewable energy. Meanwhile, ethereum, the second-most-valuable cryptocurrency, has said it will switch later this year from the energy-intensive “proof-of-work” system that the bitcoin network also uses to secure transactions on its blockchain to a dramatically cleaner “proof-of-stake” model.

Some crypto experts are skeptical that bitcoin will follow suit. Jerry Brito, executive director of crypto think tank Coin Center, said the code change the campaign is seeking would require sign-off from tens of thousands of people operating nodes that maintain the network’s blockchain, the public ledger of its transactions, in addition to the “miners” who have invested in expensive equipment based on the current system.

“It’s absolutely unrealistic for a whole host of reasons,” Brito said. “Proof-of-work and proof-of-stake are not interchangeable. Bitcoin has chosen proof-of-work because they value security over speed, and that is its whole point.”

Brune said the campaign is ready for a long haul. “If this takes the summer to accomplish, we would be very happy,” he said. “If it takes longer, we’re prepared to do this for as long as it takes.”