I have been a member of Greenpeace UK for about 30 years and have been involved in direct action, protest and general civil disobedience in their name for a corresponding period of time. In short, I have earned my stripes.
I am also a bitcoiner.
As a consequence, I have had protacted correspondence with them (Greenpeace UK) and local campaign groups regarding their attitude (and in my view acquiescence) to Greenpeace USA's Change The Code campaign.
Here's what I've gleaned...
They are horrified and profoundly embarrassed that Greenpeace US have violated Greenpeace's founding principle of financial independence. This is born out by the staggering lack of support for the campaign by Greenpeace globally.
They recognise that bitcoin is a decentralised monetary network and that therefore lobbying is not only pointless but against the direct-action history of the organisation that gave the world the Rainbow Warrior. If they wanted to change the code, they fucking would.
They are understandably concerned about the energy usage of bitcoin but recognise that the "boiling the oceans" narrative is not evidentially supported. They are also aware of the growing counternarrative that bitcoin is a powerful carbon mitigation technology, stabiliser of renewable intermittency on the grid and offers strong incentives against deforestation in the global south. Their attitude is currently one of wait and see how it plays out; there are bigger fish to fry.
They understand that miners are simply data centres and that there is no sound basis for stigmatising one use for data centres over others. The carbon footprint of streaming services and LLMs is of far more concern to them at this current time, although I suspect any campaign will include the carbon footprint or all and everything we do online.
Greenpeace are coming, and to echo Mr Saylor, they are our friends, they just don't know it yet.
enchiridion / Enchiridion
npub13q…4ya2x
2024-03-20 23:56:59
in reply to nevent1q…yraa
Author Public Key
npub13qj95gar78c3l6se9jmh6pu3amg73almcq6cclrefsxw9v8dgr5sa4ya2xPublished at
2024-03-20 23:56:59Event JSON
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