• Canadian artist Benjamin Wong created the “Skull of Satoshi” installation back in mid-March to shed light on wasteful energy use in bitcoin mining.
• Despite good intentions, there has been backlash from those who feel bitcoin is being pushed towards PoS territory like Ethereum.
• Wong has apologized and plans to remove himself from future projects similar to Skull of Satoshi so he can analyze his own work and contribution to environmental responsibility.
Project Aimed at Raising Awareness
Canadian artist Benjamin Wong created the “Skull of Satoshi” installation back in mid-March with the aim of raising awareness about the wasteful energy use in bitcoin mining. The project was supported by several cryptocurrency heads including Chris Larsen, the Ripple co-founder, and was meant to demonstrate that “change the code, not the climate” could be a possibility for Bitcoin.
Backlash from Bitcoin Supporters
Unfortunately, there has been a lot of backlash thrown at this project from those who feel Bitcoin is simply being pushed towards PoS territory like Ethereum. Rolf Skar, a special projects manager at Greenpeace USA explained that while other cryptocurrencies have realized that PoW has an energy problem and changed accordingly, Bitcoin is lagging behind in this area and sticking to decade-old technology.
Apology From Benjamin Wong
Wong has since apologized for his work claiming it was never meant to be anti-bitcoin and he is not pleased people took it as such. He stated: It was an optimistic hope that bitcoin could shift away from the needless burning of fossil fuels without losing all the other features that make bitcoin safe, secure, and decentralized… I’ve spent my entire career trying to reduce real-world physical waste, and PoW felt intuitively wasteful. Of course, I was wrong.
Removing Himself From Future Projects
In order to better understand where he can contribute positively to environmental responsibility, Wong will be removing himself from future projects similar with Skull of Satoshi so he can really analyse himself and his work properly. Meanwhile Skar clarified that they are not necessarily against Bitcoin but rather confident humans can find new ways of ensuring its survival while remaining creative when it comes to mitigating climate change impacts on the environment.
Conclusion
Ultimately Benjamin Wong’s „Skull of Satoshi“ project aimed at raising awareness about wasteful energy use in bitcoin mining sparked some controversy among supporters due its potential implications for switching over towards Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism like Ethereum uses instead; however both sides agree on one thing – finding creative solutions for mitigating climate change impacts without sacrificing security or decentralization of cryptocurrencies is key moving forward if we want our digital currencies remain sustainable into future generations too!
