Ripple’s Chris Larsen says bitcoin miners will benefit from proof-of-work demolition

Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen expressed concern about the fast growing bitcoin mining industry in the US and in a recent post urged miners to abandon the proof-of-work consensus algorithm.

Larsen stated that US publicly traded companies like BIT Mining, Riot Blockchain and Marathon Digital Mining would be better off betting on their coins. In this way, they will receive rewards proportional to the hash power.

When the code is changed, a snapshot of their hash is taken to ensure that they are adequately compensated for their investment in the device.

Larsen claims that such a transition will actually benefit miners:

Such a proposal would provide the miners with additional economic benefits – generate the same revenues with significantly lower operating costs … While the process of implementing these plans in the consensus of the Bitcoin community will take time, the benefits far outweigh the risks.

A new story?

Larsen once claimed that the Chinese government is likely to take control of the Bitcoin network due to its dominance in the mining industry, an unsubstantiated claim that has been blown many times by members of the crypto community.

Become billionaires also repeat Ripple’s stance on the US making concessions to China by providing regulatory clarity for Bitcoin and Ether, the two largest proof-of-work cryptocurrencies.

Now that China has cleaned up all of its bitcoin miners and the US has become the leading mining hub, Ripple has adopted a new story about the damage being attributed to its bitcoin miners.

In his blog post, Larsen points out that Bitcoin mining uses as much energy as 12 million households in the US each year.

Similar comparisons from CEO Brad Garlinghouse have attracted ridicule and criticize in the Bitcoin community in April.