Bitcoin Economists Demand Change from PoW to PoS

Since yesterday, Ethereum has moved from proof of work to proof of promise regarding the operation and security of its network, which in particular will allow it to reduce its energy consumption by 99%, for the benefit of environmental associations and people concerned about the following things. environment in general.

But while environmentalists are welcoming the move from Ethereum to PoS, it also made them wonder if Bitcoin, by far the largest cryptocurrency on the market, could also make this move.

Environmentalists Calling on Bitcoin to Follow Ethereum’s Lead

Instead of thinking of others, others simply claim that Bitcoin will take the same path as Ethereum, by starting its transition from PoW to PoS.

This is the case of the Environmental Working Group (EWG), an American environmental protection group, which announced yesterday the launch of a campaign with a budget of 1 million dollars to push Bitcoin to move to proof of the issue, in collaboration with Greenpeace.

“Other cryptocurrency protocols have operated on effective consensus mechanisms for years,” said EWG campaign manager Michael Brune, adding that “bitcoin has become an outlier, defiantly refusing to accept its climate responsibility”.

The Greepeace and EWG campaign also plans to pressure, through a petition, traditional financial institutions such as Fidelity or BlackRock, or Paypal also to pressure the Bitcoin community to accept a protocol change to PoS.

Note that this comes shortly after the White House published a report strongly condemning the mining of PoW cryptocurrencies and inviting them to remedy their energy consumption, under penalty of expulsion.

Additionally, the topic of cryptocurrency mining energy consumption has been in the spotlight in recent months as the global energy crisis unfolds.

Can Bitcoin also be transferred from PoW to PoS?

However, some experts believe that these requirements reflect a deep misunderstanding of how Bitcoin works. In fact, purists consider the PoW to be the true innovation that brought about the creation of Bitcoin, and that it is essential for its proper functioning and respect for its original philosophy.

Without going into technical details, it should be noted that PoS networks involve the risk of centralizing power on the network, which the highly distributed PoW system of Bitcoin cannot.

Moreover, this is not the first time Bitcoin has been asked to change its functionality. A few years ago, there was indeed talk of increasing the block size of the Bitcoin blockchain, which would result in the centralization of the network nodes.

However, this attempt to centralize the network ultimately failed, as the decentralized network remained strong and an upgrade called SegWit enabled necessary block size upgrades without centralizing the Bitcoin infrastructure.

Moreover, some of the criticisms of Bitcoin and its energy consumption are unfounded. In fact, bitcoin mining companies are increasingly using renewable energy to power their operations. In addition, Bitcoin mining activity can help regulate power grids by consuming excess energy during periods when consumption is low and production cannot be reduced.

Finally, there are also regulatory risks, in the event of a switch to PoS. In fact, regulators tend to consider cryptocurrencies based on a PoS system as securities, which makes them subject to financial regulation, and the disadvantages associated with this.

Are you worried about Bitcoin energy consumption reviews? Find out how to buy Ethereum, which has just changed from PoW to PoS!