TL;DR Breakdown
- Ripple’s co-founder Chris Larsen says he has plans to convince BTC miners to do away with PoW and adopt PoS.
- The Ripple boss says Proof of Stake is better, and a BTC adoption could raise the share prices of mining firms.
The Executive Chairman of Ripple, Chris Larsen, says he has plans to convince BTC miners to do away with the PoW mechanism. He added that these miners should view his plan as a ‘net positive for their longevity.’
Larsen argues that this move could also benefit mining firms. He said that these mining firms would benefit from the BTC PoS adoption as any such proposal would include good incentives for the firms.
Ripple’s head explains that it is time for BTC miners to consider the PoS mechanism.
The PoW mechanism is responsible for securing BTC operations. However, the BTC network requires a lot of electricity to satisfy this algorithm. As a result, many debates have been happening throughout the year, with Billionaire Chris Larsen making his move.
He first referred to this issue on NOV.10, 2021, when he said that BTC needs to use more efficient codes like other Altcoins to combat climate change. He noted that BTC uses energy almost equal to 12 million US homes each year, but some mechanisms could reduce it to 100 homes.
While ETH is already incorporating the PoS mechanism, BTC has yet to have such a proposal. Per Larsen, BTC could be left out as an ‘outlier’ if ETH completes its current transition while BTC miners are not even thinking about it. He added that even though such a proposal could happen to the BTC network, many BTC mining firms may oppose it.
Larsen suggests that the ‘least disruptive solution to BTC power consumption issues is replacing the current hashrate with a pro-rata hashrate.
How the new suggestion by Larsen would change BTC
Larsen said that his plan could solve the BTC power issue while benefiting everyone, including the miners. He said miners would get rights to BTC rewards without necessarily expanding the mining rigs or using additional energy.
Such a development would give the miners extra financial benefits since it significantly reduces operating costs.
The billionaire also suggested that the network could tokenize future rewards for miners. He said that such an upgrade would be lucrative to miners, especially as the whole network transitions to full green finance technology.
However, the suggestions from the co-founder of Ripple may not have a warm welcome from some miners. Some miners may oppose his suggestions since they may be planning to increase their share of hashrate to get extra revenue. Also, due to the controversy of changing block size of the BTC network, these suggestions would cause a major fork among the miners. However, it remains to be seen whether the BTC miners will endorse these suggestions as many leaders call for greener inventions.
