While the crypto world waits with bated breath for the blockchain Ethereum complete the merge and the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) transaction, the public wonders what Bitcoin will do.
The two platforms world leaders in terms of market capitalization share a similar operation, built on a consensus protocol called Proof-of-Work (PoW).
The high demand that it requires and the pollution it produces have pushed Ethereum to change and requests are mobilized in the community because it is acute; BTC also follow this path.
Bitcoin pressures for a move to Proof-of-Stake (PoS)
Greenpeace in collaboration with the former CEO of Ripple, Chris Larsen, is carrying out a campaign so that the Bitcoin blockchain follows the example of Ethereum by migrating to Proof-of-Stake (PoS).
Before seeing which is was the reaction of the community to this request perhaps it is good to ask yourself why there is so much pressure so that the platform changes the consent protocol.
The Proof-of-Work (PoW), what is it
The PoW is a mechanism whereby validator nodes are chosen from among the computers participating in the network. Translated into normal language, you buy hardware that has an exorbitant cost, the purpose of which is to solve complex computational problems, when they do the transaction is validated. To do it it consumes a large amount of electricity and also pollute exorbitantly.
The people who take care of having and managing these hardware (miners) have a reward consisting of the new cryptocurrencies generated every number of transactions performed, in jargon it is said for block added. This is the famous activity which defines itself as mining.
Moral of the story, to make this system work you need a lot of energy which makes Bitcoins low sustainable environmentally, in addition to the fact that the PoW requires high maintenance costs.
Proof-of-Stake (PoS), the blockchain becomes sustainable
An alternative mechanism to PoW called Proof-of-Stake (PoS) comes to the rescue of these problems and does not require space computers and no particular amount of energy.
Here the validators use staking, that is bind a sum of cryptocurrencies, and new tokens are generated with the rewards that are awarded as annual returns.
This makes the system much more sustainable, it is estimated that it reduces energy requirements by 99% compared to PoW, and therefore a part of the crypto world is asking BTCs to comply. But will they do it?
Bitcoins will remain loyal to PoW
The community of Bitcoin has no intention of making any transition to the PoS. First of all, on the Ethereum merge it is often forgotten how delicate this operation is that the team has been postponing for years. If the transition was announced for August the date is slipped for at least 3 years and this precisely because of the delicacy of the event.
Why do Bitcoins don’t need to Leave Proof-of-Work? Actually, except that a similar cryptocurrency, the two blockchains have nothing else in common. They have different needs and the PoS is not the priority for BTC.
Read also: Will Bitcoin mining be banned in Europe?
What Bitcoin and Ethereum have not in common: everything and nothing
As the two most famous cryptocurrencies have always been BTC and Ether (ETH), they are always juxtaposed and compared by similarity and opposition.
What you forget is the different purpose which have not the coins, but the ecosystems as a whole: that is platforms.
BTC are born as an alternative to the dollar and other legal tender currencies, since it is a decentralized finance option. Here their function ends. And because for this coin a very low supply limit has been set and that is 21,000,000 tokens.
Ethereum was born as an open source platform, with which external designers can build their own DApps.
In summary, the community of Bitcoin says no to PoS because it has no need for it, if not the environmental one to which for now it does not seem particularly interested. It has no need to engage in a delicate operation, also because it believes that the problem does not only concern the energy needs of a network, but even more the fact that energy must come from renewable sources.
