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It's difficult for the Bitcoin community to find consensus on changes to the consensus rules. We couldn't change a constant from 1MB to 2MB. I think changing

by toomim 6y ago

It's difficult for the Bitcoin community to find consensus on changes to the consensus rules. We couldn't change a constant from 1MB to 2MB. I think changing PoW entirely is extremely unlikely to happen. It's much easier for the people who believe in PoS to sell their Bitcoin and buy Ethereum instead.

xorcist 6y ago
Or any of the other PoS coins. If you want to invest (which is a word I hesitate to use in the context of any cryptocurrency) in a PoS coin there are more mature ones. It would be interesting if someone would research why this hasn't already happened? It's not like that alternative hasn't been available for a long time now.
- intotheabyss 6y ago
  Casper and LMD GHOST (which is what Eth2 uses) is one of the most mature proof of stake consensus algorithms out there. The other is Tendermint, but that's a practical BFT algorithm, so limited to 100-300 validating nodes, whereas ETH2 has hundreds of thousands of validators.
- mminer237 6y ago
  Bitcoin's value is not based on its technical ability or its usefulness. No one understands or care about PoW vs PoS. Its only practical worth is its name recognition driving more people to buy it as an investment. Bitcoin beat Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash and Ripple and Monero and every other coin because it was first, and people know the name "Bitcoin", and they've never heard of any altcoin.
  - imtringued 6y ago
    At some point it will fail because of its technical failures though. The people buying it assume that Bitcoin as it is, is already perfect and never has to change when that is far from the truth.
- chrisco255 6y ago
  Network effects and also, any chain that starts as a Proof-of-Stake chain suffers from the problem of early investors and early developers essentially controlling huge chunks of the supply (sometimes 80%+), so there is much larger centralization risk and a less distributed community. I think beginning as Proof-of-Work and then many years later transitioning to Proof-of-Stake is one of the fairest distribution methods. In Ethereum (and Bitcoin), for example, no one person controls more than 1% of the supply. That will serve to hopefully make it more resilient to collusion and cartel mechanics.

by toomim 6y ago

xorcist 6y ago

Or any of the other PoS coins. If you want to invest (which is a word I hesitate to use in the context of any cryptocurrency) in a PoS coin there are more mature ones. It would be interesting if someone would research why this hasn't already happened? It's not like that alternative hasn't been available for a long time now.

intotheabyss 6y ago
Casper and LMD GHOST (which is what Eth2 uses) is one of the most mature proof of stake consensus algorithms out there. The other is Tendermint, but that's a practical BFT algorithm, so limited to 100-300 validating nodes, whereas ETH2 has hundreds of thousands of validators.
mminer237 6y ago
Bitcoin's value is not based on its technical ability or its usefulness. No one understands or care about PoW vs PoS. Its only practical worth is its name recognition driving more people to buy it as an investment. Bitcoin beat Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash and Ripple and Monero and every other coin because it was first, and people know the name "Bitcoin", and they've never heard of any altcoin.
- imtringued 6y ago
  At some point it will fail because of its technical failures though. The people buying it assume that Bitcoin as it is, is already perfect and never has to change when that is far from the truth.
chrisco255 6y ago
Network effects and also, any chain that starts as a Proof-of-Stake chain suffers from the problem of early investors and early developers essentially controlling huge chunks of the supply (sometimes 80%+), so there is much larger centralization risk and a less distributed community. I think beginning as Proof-of-Work and then many years later transitioning to Proof-of-Stake is one of the fairest distribution methods. In Ethereum (and Bitcoin), for example, no one person controls more than 1% of the supply. That will serve to hopefully make it more resilient to collusion and cartel mechanics.