Greenpeace hired an artist with the funding of Change the Code, a Ripple-related movement, to raise a memento of Bitcoin mining’s ocean-boiling and polar bear-killing activity with an installation called “Satoshi’s Skull”. However, Bitcoin supporters took the creation as a cool mascot.
The climate activist group has partnered with artist-activist Benjamin Von Wong for the ongoing “Change the code, not the climate” (Change the code, not the climate) campaign. The purpose of this is to switch Bitcoin’s consensus mechanism to a proof-of-stake (PoS) model.
As part of this campaign, on March 23, Greenpeace presented a work of art called “Satoshi’s Skull”, which depicts a 3.3 meter high skull with the Bitcoin logo and red laser eyes. However, it very much seems that the Bitcoin community has taken a liking to the artwork and it has started to spread as a popular meme.
On top of the skull, which is made from recycled electronic waste, sit “smoking piles”. These are said to represent “fossil fuel and coal burning air pollution” caused by the “millions of computers” used to mine bitcoin and validate network transactions.
However, Greenpeace’s marketing campaign took an unexpected turn when Bitcoin supporters expressed their admiration for the artwork, and some even adopted it as a quasi-mascot.
Many liked the work created by Greenpeace
Will Foxley, director of media strategy at cryptomining company Compass Mining, called the artwork “cool” and changed his Twitter profile picture to a picture of Satoshi’s skull.
CoinMetrics co-founder Nic Carter tweeted on March 24 that the artwork is “coolest Bitcoin artwork ever”.
However, there were also those who fell for the creation chosen by Greenpeace. According to one Twitter user, the smokestacks on the skull’s head look like nuclear cooling towers emitting steam.
The Greenpeace campaign started about a year ago. Other climate protection groups also got behind the effort, but Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen is also among the supporters.
The campaign aims to put pressure on Bitcoin developers, miners and governments, stating that 30 “key” organizations in the Bitcoin ecosystem could easily switch Bitcoin from the proof-of-work mining mechanism to the less energy-intensive proof-of-stake mechanism.
There is hardly any chance of a change in consensus, especially not from an entity coming from outside the sector, behind which a Ripple co-founder of the banks’ settlement network lined up as a supporter. Bitcoinists attribute this type of attack to the fact that they want to centralize and weaken the Bitcoin network, so that it fits better into the mainstream financial processes, against which it was created in the beginning.