Is there a way to change Bitcoin Open Source code to be more Environmentally friendly? If Bitcoin is open source as proponents mention, why can't make Bitcoin as environmentally friendly as Ripple, Dogecoin, Cardono etc? Elon Musk tanked the market by mentioning Dogecoin is More environmentally friendly. It apparently uses an algorithm that takes less computation and energy consumption.
Source Code reference:
https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin
Yes, there is a way, by creating a BIP, but an alternative to PoW would very likely not get consensus in the community, and thus its supporters would be forced (and are free to) to create a hard fork, creating a new coin altogether. It is then to be seen which coin the market will choose, but my sense is that the majority of bitcoin investors will still favour the coin with the original PoW mechanism.
Many coins have been created to set out to find a replacement for PoW, yet none of the coins have gained significant market share.
The monetary property that PoW provides for bitcoin is unforgeability, conceptually very similar to the unforgeability of gold. Other proof mechanisms of other coins are believed to be easier to forge/corrupt and more prone to centralisation of a coin. Buyers of bitcoin likely value the monetary property of unforgeability that PoW provides and this is likely the reason why bitcoin remains the most valued coin, despite its reliance on energy.
While bitcoins reliance on energy on the surface does not seem ideal, a currency that can be forged or centralised also has no (long term) value. Users will subjectively value whether the energy spent that safeguards their investments is ‘worth it’, by investing in it, or not. Some journalists or celebrities, like Elon Musk, may consider it ‘not worth it’ or ‘morally unjust’ from their vantage point, or still believe that PoW can be replaced, despite many failed altcoins and a large body of research on PoW. However, if you have suffered through many currency devaluations or disagree with how the ‘petro’-dollar is upheld and the effects it has on the world politics, the energy spent to safeguard the value of bitcoin may -subjectively!- be ‘worth it’ to you.