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Earnestly/naively curious: what are the best first-principles arguments for why Bitcoin should not end up fully superseded by Ethereum? (Please don’t make me regret asking this! This is a truth-seeking q; I have no dog in this fight)

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Eli Dourado

@elidourado

· May 1, 2021

Replying to @BrantlyMillegan

They have completely given up. The narrative now is “hodl,” as if you could ever change the world by sitting on your hands and literally doing nothing.

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@lingmann

May 1, 2021

Proof of Stake by design incentivizes centralized control of the protocol and supply, which is antithetical to open and decentralized money. Smart layering of protocols provides best of both worlds (stability and trust in base layer, higher layers for innovation and experiments).

Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Replying to

@lingmann

This seems like an interesting line of argument. Is there a long-form version anywhere you’d recommend? I’d like to understand the centralization liabilities of PoS more deeply.

7:23 PM · May 1, 2021Twitter Web App

@lingmann

May 1, 2021

Replying to

@andy_matuschak

I’d recommend this paper nakamotoinstitute.org/static/docs/on but I would love to see more rigorous analysis comparing PoW and PoS… For me it’s more of a personal gut check, PoS feels too much like trying to get “something of value for nothing” so I am very skeptical.

RyeBit (ryebit.eth)

@BitRye

May 1, 2021

I'd argue the exact opposite, measuring in terms of ROI. Stake $1k or $1m, hardware and energy costs are low... %ROI is close to the same. But in mining, $1m invested has access to better hardware, cheaper energy... %ROI goes up w/ scale, meaning smaller miners get pushed out.

Replying to

and

You can run an ETH 2 node on a raspberry pi - yes you need 32 ETH but to say BTC hash power is a beacon of decentralization ignores that the hash power is concentrated in a small geographic region of China. Give me a break