Chris Larsen is one of the co-founders of the embattled crypto-payments company Ripple. He has reportedly committed $5 million of his own money to a public campaign to make bitcoin (BTC) greener. In collaboration with Greenpeace and other organizations, he is supporting a series of advertisements spanning the month of April, urging bitcoiners to “Change the Code, Not the Climate.” According to Bloomberg, the idea is to pressure the Bitcoin community to switch from power-intensive proof-of-work mining to a proof-of-stake mechanism that requires far less energy. Larsen’s approach appears to be intriguing at first look. The environmental effect of proof-of-work mining is probably Bitcoin’s most significant disadvantage. It is also a persistent impediment to the general public’s understanding of cryptocurrency. For example, rhetoric about environmental damage has contributed to widespread and sometimes misguided animosity toward non-fungible tokens (NFT) in the art world. However, industry experts and onlookers have reacted with skepticism and distrust to Larsen’s efforts. This is due, in part, to the fact that as noble as Larsen’s intention appears to be, the campaign’s proposals are exceedingly risky, totally unrealistic, and maybe even absurd. More importantly, Larsen’s motivations for the idea are highly dubious. He has spent the last decade as a co-founder of Ripple, arguably competing with Bitcoin. Risks Involved The first i...
