Greenpeace, the well-known environmental NGO, has unveiled the “Satoshi’s Skull,” an art installation intended to spark debate about Bitcoin’s impact on the environment. The 11-foot skull was built from scrap electronic materials and features chimneys and Bitcoin logos. However, its creator, Benjamin Von Wong, explained that it was not intended to be an anti-Bitcoin symbol.
Greenpeace unveils ‘Skull of Satoshi’ art installation
Greenpeace, the international environmental NGO, unveiled the “Skull of Satoshi,” an 11-foot art installation meant to criticize Bitcoin’s effect on the environment, on March 23. The structure, which was created by Benjamin Von Wong, has distinctive elements included to spark debate about just how destructive bitcoin mining can supposedly be.
One of them is the presence of chimneys, which symbolize the use of fossil fuels to produce the energy that is used to operate the Bitcoin network through mining. Additionally, the skull has hundreds of wires sticking out and bitcoin logos on its eyes. According to Greenpeace, it was created with electronic waste material, to symbolize the computers used to validate Bitcoin transactions.
Greenpeace’s goal is to raise awareness about Bitcoin’s energy consumption and how this could change through a change to the cryptocurrency’s code. Rolf Skar of Greenpeace explained:
Our skull design serves as a powerful symbol, urging financial institutions to use their influence to advocate for a code change that could reduce Bitcoin’s electricity usage by 99%. We cannot afford to further expand our dependence on fossil fuels.
The Satoshi Skull will next travel to New York to take part in an “accountability tour,” in which Greenpeace will try to encourage financial institutions that use Bitcoin to call for a change to the currency code to lessen its effects. about climate change.
Benjamin Von Wong clarifies his intention
Benjamin Von Wong, the creator of the Skull of Satoshi, took his views to Twitter, clarifying his true intentions with the construction of the facility. The installation, which was commissioned by Greenpeace, was created with a simplistic idea of Bitcoin, Von Wong explained in a Twitter thread on March 25. He said:
I created Skull believing that Bitcoin Mining was a simple black and white problem. I’ve spent my entire career trying to reduce the physical waste of the real world, and PoW seemed intuitively wasteful to me. Of course, I was wrong.
Also, Von Wong declared that the sculpture was never intended to be anti-Bitcoin, but part of his “optimistic hope that Bitcoin could move away from the unnecessary burning of fossil fuels without losing all the other features that make Bitcoin secure and decentralized.”
What do you think of the Skull of Satoshi and Greenpeace campaign to change the Bitcoin code? Tell us in the comment section below.
image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, WikiCommons, Benjamin Von Wong
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