The ‘Skull of Satoshi’ is Yet Another Symbol of Bitcoiners Resilience

Greenpeace is a well-known opposer to Bitcoin and proof-of-work networks. That is hardly news.

From publishing articles and videos actively accusing Bitcoin of ‘fueling the climate crisis’ while completely ignoring its grid stabilization capacity to actively leading a campaign to “change Bitcoin’s code,” the organization’s efforts have not gone unnoticed.

However, its last campaign backfired spectacularly, as it not only failed to convey Greenpeace’s anti-mining message, but it also rallied the Bitcoin community behind a symbol they themselves paid for.

This is the story of the ‘Skull of Satoshi’ and how it’s uniting Bitcoiners around the world.

The Root of the Controversy

Benjamin Von Wong is an artist specializing in creating impactful and thought-provoking installations. In his broad area of expertise, he is most known for his environment-focused work.

He is also the artist Greenpeace chose to create an installation for its “Change the Code, Not the Climate” campaign — a $5 million initiative funded by Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen that aims to pressure the Bitcoin community to change the network’s proof-of-work consensus algorithm.

The point? Bitcoin mining uses a tremendous amount of energy, and other consensus mechanisms such as proof-of-stake do not.

Nevertheless, proof-of-work is also the most efficient mechanism to ensure security and decentralization — two of Bitcoin’s most valuable qualities — which is why the Bitcoin community is strongly reluctant to migrate to any other method.

The Skull of Satoshi is Revealed to the World

On March 23, Von Wong presented his art piece through a blog post and a video, calling it the “Skull of Satoshi.”

The fascinating sculpture consists of an 11-foot tall skull made of wood, recycled styrofoam and hundreds of pieces of electronic waste. The skull also features red laser eyes, referencing the Bitcoin Twitter community members who added laser eyes in their profile pictures calling for its price to hit $100K.

Finally, several cooling towers — like those usually found on nuclear power plants — grow from the skull’s top, representing the vast amount of electricity needed to power the Bitcoin network.

All in all, the installation was supposed to portray Bitcoin as a blatant waste of energy and resources and imply it leads to the ‘death’ of our natural environment.

However, the actual effect of the piece was something entirely different. Rather than provoking and infuriating the Bitcoin community, the Skull of Satoshi was embraced as a symbol because, well, it looks incredible.

Most importantly, there’s an even more inspiring story besides the art’s, and that is the artist’s.

Encouraging Bitcoin Education

In the beginning of the article, we mentioned that Von Wong is renowned for its environmental work.

Naturally, misguided by the massive misinformation spread about Bitcoin and proof-of-work, he had the wrong idea about mining.

“I made the Skull believing that Bitcoin Mining was a simple black-and-white issue. I’ve spent my entire career trying to reduce real-world physical waste, and proof-of-work felt intuitively wasteful. Of course, I was wrong,” he wrote in a tweet.

Indeed, after his work went viral, the artist was approached by Bitcoin community members eager to share the truth about Bitcoin — that it has the potential to make a positive impact on the environment through renewable energy scaling and grid balancing.

Rather than being caught in the middle or taking sides, Von Wong has adopted a diplomatic approach, trying to encourage both parties to see each other’s points and, rather than focusing on discrediting the other, demonstrating with facts that they’re wrong — a tough mission, but still noble.

Yet, the point remains elsewhere.

This entire event shows how education is a crucial element in Bitcoin’s journey to success, and how some people simply don’t yet understand the transformative potential of Bitcoin, not only in the financial domain, but also in our energy infrastructure.

If we want a world that acknowledges the true value of Bitcoin, we need to communicate it ourselves.

Until then, the Skull of Satoshi will remain a symbol of the Bitcoin community’s resilience against every attack thrown at them.