Greenpeace recently launched a marketing campaign against the Bitcoin mining industry, but it seems to have backfired, as BTC supporters embraced its artistic depiction of their beloved cryptocurrency. Meanwhile, Bitcoiners continue to criticize the organization’s efforts to portray the network as environmentally harmful and remain committed to its proof of work consensus mechanism.
The Skull of Satoshi
In a tweet on Friday, Greenpeace repeated its previous claims that Bitcoin is causing “dangerous amounts of real-world pollution” through fossil fuel consumption incentivized by its “outdated code”. The organization labeled the tweet with its original hashtag, “#ChangeTheCode”, which is a call to see Bitcoin shift its consensus mechanism from proof of work (POW) to proof of stake (POS). As included in the tweet, the “Skull of Satoshi” is meant to depict the harm caused by energy consumption. The eleven-foot-tall creation is built out of computer motherboards, topped with smoke stacks, and illuminated by glowing red eyes often used in Bitcoin bulls’ Twitter profile pictures.
What Bitcoiners Think
Despite Greenpeace’s intentions, some Bitcoin supporters viewed the Skull of Satoshi as impressive artistic representation. Castle Island Ventures co-founder Nic Carter tweeted, «Greenpeace accidentally made the most metal Bitcoin artwork to date in their misguided anti-PoW campaign.» Others, such as @notgrubles, laughed at certain aspects of the artwork. Still, some critics continue to criticize Greenpeace for taking $5 million from Ripple executives to target Bitcoin mining. Despite the criticism, major holder of Bitcoin, Michael Saylor, has claimed that fears over Bitcoin’s energy consumption are merely “lobbyist propaganda,” and he and the Bitcoin Mining Council frequently release updates on Bitcoin’s green energy mix, which is considerably higher than other industries.
