A year ago, Greenpeace started a program called “Change the code, not the climate.”
- This week, the group got a lot of attention for a mistake they made with their PR about an art installation they put up to promote their cause.
- There are several reasons why Bitcoin won’t and shouldn’t switch to a Proof of Stake consensus method.
Greenpeace started its “Change the code, not the climate” movement around this time last year. It caused Bitcoin to switch from a Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism to a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, but it hasn’t really done much so far. The movement wants a “basic” code change from PoW to PoS. It says that if Ethereum could do it, there’s no reason why Bitcoin couldn’t, and this message is still being spread. A year later, Bitcoin still doesn’t seem to have done any more self-education on the subject, and its PR campaign has been a disaster. Here are four reasons why Bitcoin will never change to a PoS consensus method and why it shouldn’t.
Security
Over the course of more than a decade, Proof-of-Work has proven itself to be a secure and time-effective consensus mechanism. PoS is still a fairly new technology and hasn’t been tested as fully as PoW. This means that a switch to PoS could bring new risks and uncertainties that could make the Bitcoin network less reliable.
PoS is open to attacks like the “nothing at stake” problem, in which validators can vote on multiple blocks that are at odds with each other, which could cause the network to split.
Decentralization
One of the best things about PoW is that it gives miners a reason to join the network, which helps keep the network autonomous. In contrast, validators in a PoS network must keep a specific sum of cryptocurrency in their wallets. This can lead to the network being controlled by a small number of big stakeholders, which can lead to centralization.
Greenpeace doesn’t seem to understand that even if a protocol change were required, the thousands of Bitcoin sites and miners would never vote for it.
Regulations
Gary Gensler of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said that Ethereum is now a security on the same day that it switched to a proof-of-stake agreement method. The SEC went after Kraken and Coinbase because of allegations that their staking services amounted to the illegal sale of equities.
The SEC has said on the record that Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency that can’t be thought of as a security. If Bitcoin switched to a PoS consensus mechanism, this would change quickly.
Difficulty
Greenpeace also doesn’t seem to understand how to switch from PoW to PoS. It uses Ethereum’s switch as an example of the “basic” code switch that is needed, which is hilariously wrong. Ethereum has been working on a PoS switch since 2017, and it has only just been turned on. It is also still being worked on. The Ethereum Foundation is aiding in this process.
Such a foundation no longer exists for Bitcoin, and it’s difficult to fathom how many individuals all around the world would have to agree upon and then implement such a scheme. Those who remember the block size war will know that it is impossible to get miners, developers, users, and node operators to work together for years to make a change that none of them want and that can’t be pushed.
Greenpeace Needs to Fry (and Save) Bigger Fish.
Overall, then, the chances of Bitcoin moving to a PoS consensus system are about the same as the chances of Greenpeace learning how Bitcoin works. With Bitcoin’s energy use shifting more and more toward renewables every year and mining equipment getting greener with each new version, and with Bitcoin mining only using 0.25 percent of the world’s wasted energy, Greenpeace should probably be spending its efforts elsewhere.