Anatoly Yakovenko, one of the co-founders of Solana, the proof-of-stake based, smart contracts enabled blockchain, issued a series of statements criticizing bitcoin’s consensus algorithm. In an interview on CNBC, Yakovenko stated that bitcoin might lose adoption if it doesn’t change to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus algorithm. Other organizations have also attacked bitcoin, hinting at this same change as a possible solution for what are considered drawbacks by some.
Solana Creator Thinks Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work Consensus Algorithm Will Affect Its Use
Anatoly Yakovenko, one of the co-founders of Solana, the PoS consensus-based blockchain, has published his views on bitcoin’s proof-of-work (PoW) and how it could affect the leading cryptocurrency in the world. coming. In an interview on CNBC, Yakovenko said that one of the main differences when comparing Solana with Bitcoin is the energy efficiency of the former.
On this, Yakovenko explained:
If you look at Solana’s energy report, a single Solana transaction is about two Google searches worth of energy. I think that even among proof-of-stake networks is one of the most efficient ones.
Yakovenko further mentioned that, in his view, most of the networks that people will use in the future will be consensus-based PoS. Asked about Bitcoin’s future in this context, Yakovenko said:
If [Bitcoin] eventually doesn’t switch to proof-of-stake nobody is going to use it.
Others are looking to change Bitcoin’s code
Yakovenko is not the first to directly criticize bitcoin’s power consumption and future as a proof-of-stake network. Since proof-of-stake consensus has been used to develop several rival networks to the two major blockchains (Bitcoin and Ethereum), proof-of-work consensus algorithms have been deemed too power-intensive.
Since last year this thought has gained more traction, when Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and Spacex, commented about the “insane” energy consumption of the Bitcoin network while suspending bitcoin as a payment method for acquiring Tesla vehicles at the same time.
More recently, other parties have also criticized Bitcoin, suggesting that a change in its consensus algorithm could be key to its sustainability. This is the case of the World Economic Forum, which on April 26 published a video in which it claims that a “change in the way Bitcoin is coded could virtually eliminate its environmental impact”.
