Crypto enthusiasts should keep their eyes and ears open for this recently launched project called Bitcoin Green (BITG). Almost all issues that challenge Bitcoin like slow transaction times, massive energy consumptions, high network fees are addressed by Bitcoin Green project. Launched on the back of being a sustainable alternative to Bitcoin, the Green project promises a solution by using proof-of-stake with masternodes instead of proof-of-work used by BTC. Bitcoin Green is the first proof-of-stake Bitcoin implementation.
Bitcoin uses the hashcash proof of work system and has been flayed by environmentalists for large resources needed to mine them. Proof-of-work is a costly and time consuming piece of data which is difficult to produce but easy for someone to verify. Proof-of-work was first used in 1993 and later adapted by "Satoshi" for Bitcoin block mining.
One of the main reasons BTC suffered a setback in China is due to the mining process that required huge amounts of power. Currently one Bitcoin transaction requires the same amount of power needed for 1.5 American homes with an average household of 4 members. Bitcoin mining is consuming as much electricity as Denmark does.
Proof-of-stake is just a simpler way to validate transactions. The purpose and the goal are the same, that is to verify and validate each transaction. Proof-of-Stake as an idea was first suggested in a bitcoin forum in 2011. But it was actually first used by Peercoin (This coin is listed on CoinSpot). Steem uses Delegated Proof of Stake which is totally a different and more interesting story and a lot has been written about it on this platform.
In addition to the environmental benefits, BITG aims to attack the centralised nature of earlier cyptocurrencies where the owners or founders own anywhere between 10 to 20% of the total circulation supply. Soon after BITG premining was performed, 500,000 BITG was distributed to the earliest supporters of the project. Out of this 500k, 400k BITG was divided between members and the remaining was split between founder, the lead developer and six other individuals. According to the company the maximum inequality between the larges and smallest holder is 5 to 1.
Building a community of stake-holders is a big part of BITG project. As they are cementing valid arguments against the expensive and cumbersome BTCs, they are also planning on listing the coin on two exchanges soon. The price of a coin is AUD 5.25 on 8th April. The total supply is 21 million with 2.6 million in current supply.
Read the following quote by Alec Beckman, the CEO of BITG. He sums it really well:
the project is first and foremost, a campaign to raise awareness for sustainability issues arising from the proof-of-work consensus commonly used in public blockchain networks. Secondly, a cryptocurrency that is dramatically faster, cheaper, and more scalable than Bitcoin in its current form...anyone can mine Bitcoin Green, without the need for specialised computer hardware. Right now not many people know exactly how and why proof-of-work is bad. Even fewer understand how proof-of-stake solves those problems. We aim to change that and bring the technology mainstream