If you have not heard about the newest controversy in the crypto realm well let me tell you about it! Chris Larsen, the co-founder, and Chairman of Ripple has called for Bitcoin to fundamentally change its code from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS). To accomplish this goal he has teamed up with Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, well-known environmental groups, to push for this change.
As I am sure you have figured the idea has faced swift backlash and has not at all been received well. Many have called him out for his hypocrisy and thus the nickname Judas has begun to be used. Let's not forget that Larsen made his billions in Ripple, a cryptocurrency, and now he is throwing the largest crypto under the bus.
Personally, since he still works for another crypto project even if its clientele is different does bring about questions of conflict of interest. It is easy to trash another project on another chain however it is almost like he doesn't realize his very project is still battling with the SEC in court. Even if Ripple wins at this point the amount of money they have had to spend and the amount of time that has been lost allows other blockchains and projects to catch up and even pass them permanently dents the project.
It is like when a politician says a crazy thing to get on the news for the free publicity you almost have to think that is the logic here. When you look at the two powerful organizations that he has partnered with to do this it is shocking to see they are going to spend..... a whopping $5 million to do it..... The lack of funds being used is the biggest reason why I do not think this is a serious endeavor but a publicity stunt. Also when you look into possible code upgrades nothing has been submitted to Github that others can even look at. All that was done was some tweets were fired off to put the spotlight on himself.
While I am not for moving to PoS for Bitcoin this public stunt really messes up the discussion about Bitcoins energy usage. Now anytime people want to address it and maybe work on solutions to lower the energy demand this instance is going to be used as a reason why we should not. I am not saying this is either right or wrong but it is something that will be used in the future against proposals that might have a small grain of help in them.
Bitcoin is an innovation marvel and will be for the foreseeable future. One of the best things about it is the way it can evolve and Chris Larsen decided to take it upon himself to really crap on this very important thing. It is a shame and embarrassing to see someone in the crypto realm in his position do something this stupid.
Please know I am not a financial advisor I am just someone who picked up on a trend and wanted to express it! Makes sure you always do your own research and never invest money you cannot afford to lose! If you enjoyed this article and would like to further support me below are a couple of referral links that if you used when signing up I would appreciate it! Also, follow me on Twitter @Cje95_
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