Bitcoin is popular among some investors, but its energy use has riled environmental groups, alarmed some lawmakers, and put the cryptocurrency at odds with a green movement that has some supporters on Wall Street.
Greenpeace USA, Environmental Working Group and others will run ads in media outlets such as the New York Times, Politico and The Wall Street Journal highlighting bitcoin’s environmental impact and advocating for change.
The campaign isn’t anti-bitcoin, said Michael Brune, the former executive director of the Sierra Club who is advising the campaign.
The goal is to persuade bitcoin’s community of investors and backers to change the network’s code, removing the “proof of work” mechanism that requires bitcoin “miners” to expend a certain amount of energy while processing transactions to earn rewards in newly created bitcoin.
But the network requires miners to expend vast amounts of computing power to make it prohibitively expensive for somebody to take over the network, which could allow them to create counterfeit bitcoins or erase transactions.
The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance estimates that the bitcoin network uses slightly more energy a year, 134.9 terawatt hours, than Norway, at 124.3 terawatt hours.
Bitcoin’s environmental effects have been an issue for years, but the people in control of it have rejected the kinds of changes being proposed.
The Ethereum network also uses proof of work, but is changing to a model called proof of stake, which essentially swaps energy for cryptocurrency.