Vitalik Buterin Sheds Light on Ethereum Foundation’s Staking Plan for ETH 2.0
Ethereum (ETH) co-creator Vitalik Buterin recently appeared on the CryptoPOV podcast with host David Hoffman to discuss issues concerning the ETH 2.0, the race to be the defacto internet money, as well as the long-term relationship between Ethereum and Bitcoin — the two most popular cryptocurrencies.
Concerning Internet Money, EIP 1559, and ETH vs. BTC
In a CryptoPOV podcast interview on Tuesday (April 28, 2020), Buterin shared his view on a number of topics regarding the future and development of the Ethereum project. According to the Ethereum co-founder, ETH issuance will likely be halved after the proposed ETH 2.0 upgrade launches.
Concerning issues relating to Ethereum being designated as “internet money”, Buterin revealed that he was not in support of such a characterization adding that it brought up “quasi-religious” connotations which were already a cause for a lot of rifts and disagreements in the crypto space.
According to Buterin, while crypto’s initial emergence appeared to dovetail with the digital money concept, assets like Ether and Bitcoin (BTC) exhibit multifaceted applicability that goes beyond being a store of value or a medium of exchange.
While conceding that Ethereum’s “Genesis” did not match the “immaculate conception” of Bitcoin, Buterin maintained that the former’s initial token sale was “quite fair.” According to the Ethereum co-founder, the period when BTC was relatively unknown constituted an unfair advantage for early adopters even if mining at the time was an egalitarian way of acquiring Bitcoin.
Buterin also touched on issues relating to the staking percentage to be adopted by the Ethereum Foundation (EF) under the ETH 2.0 paradigm. Commenting on the matter, Buterin remarked:
“I think that EF should commit to staking about the same percentage of its money that the entire Ethereum ecosystem stakes altogether.”
For the Ethereum co-founder, the EF maintaining the same staking percentage as the rest of the network eliminates any conflict of interest or manipulation of the proof-of-stake (POS) model in ETH 2.0.
Bitcoin vs Altcoins and the Destiny of Internet Money
On the subject of which crypto will end up being internet money, several pundits from across the tech industry have voiced their opinions in the past. For Twitter chief Jack Dorsey, Bitcoin will be the de facto native currency of the internet.
Back in 2018, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said that he believed Bitcoin will become a single global currency while referring to the flagship cryptocurrency as pure digital gold.
While Buterin is confident that ETH 2.0 will make Ethereum more decentralized, criticisms over apparent centralization concerns are hardly ever far from altcoin projects. As previously reported by BTCManager, Weiss Rating downgraded the EOS crypto project, criticizing it for being centralized and its inability to solve systematic problems.
