Greenpeace, an Amsterdam-based NGO, has said that it will stop accepting Bitcoin donations, as policy became no longer tenable.
It has been reported that climate campaigning groups, who have been slow to take a firm line against Proof-of-Work cryptocurrencies until now, are catching up and becoming more aware of the climate risks involved.
However, Greenpeace, which set up a facility for accepting Bitcoin donations back in 2014, is now planning to scrap the channel. Much of the current awareness of Bitcoin’s energy problem has undoubtedly been galvanized by Elon Musk’s recent high-profile intervention when the Tesla CEO announced the company would no longer be accepting BTC as payment for vehicles due to concerns about the high energy consumption of Bitcoin mining.
The report said that the shift towards Bitcoin’s reputation as a “dirty currency” has long been in the making while Musk’s decision had a dramatic and immediate impact on the cryptocurrency markets, sparking a sharp decrease in Bitcoin’s price.
Longstanding concerns about the currency’s high energy consumption are increasingly gaining traction against the backdrop of a new consensus in high finance that is increasingly focused on centering sustainable investing strategies.
Bitcoin faces more backlash over environmental concerns. @Greenpeace, the global environmental NGO, has announced that it will stop accepting BTC in light of the climate crisis. https://t.co/63OHRALeDf — Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) May 21, 2021
Likewise, critics of green measures set in motion by the European Union and others, which involve an attempt to escort capital into sustainable development assets, point to the ample room for “greenwashing” that current strategies underwrite. Nation-states are increasingly stepping in to “derisk“ development assets i.e. to guarantee profits against demand-side, political and climate-driven investment shocks, while the world’s largest asset managers are able to co-opt and capitalize on the green agenda for their own ends.
Thus, some analysts continue to argue that where crypto mining is fueled by hydroelectric power and other clean sources, climate risks are less of immediate concern.
Source: Cointelegraph | Image: Greenpeace
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