ETH Co-Founder Speaks Up; Categorizes Proof-Of-Work Proponent's Claim 'Unmitigated'

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain and one of the proponents of cryptocurrency, has blasted the claim of a proof-of-work (PoW) proponent against the proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism.

The Canadian programmer used Twitter to express his opinion on the criticism recently thrown against PoS by Swan Bitcoin’s managing editor Nick Payton. In a tweet Tuesday, Payton claimed that "the fact that you can vote on something to change its properties is proof that it's a security."

The statement can be easily interpreted as a slap in the face of the cryptocurrency industry, which has fought with the Securities and Exchange Commission for years on this issue. This is also a sensitive topic, particularly for Ethereum investors since the issue remains unanswered to this day.

Buterin did not let Payton's statement slip and labeled the claim as an "unmitigated bare-faced lie." On Tuesday, Buterin said, "It's amazing how some PoW proponents just keep repeating the unmitigated bare-faced lie that PoS includes voting on protocol parameters (it doesn't, just like PoW doesn't) and this so often just goes unchallenged. Nodes reject invalid blocks, in PoS and PoW. It's not hard."

In a follow-up tweet, the Ethereum co-founder turned into a "grammar Nazi" and corrected Payton's tweet. "Also, small grammar nuance: in English when talking about things like proof of stake, we don't say "it's a security", we say "it's secure". I know these suffixes are hard though, so I forgive the error."

At present, Ethereum is on its way to transitioning from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake through the initiative dubbed The Merge. At present, both Bitcoin and Ethereum use proof-of-work not only to validate transactions but also to secure their respective networks. Proof-of-work is a mechanism that relies on the participation of crypto miners to solve complex mathematical problems.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson shared Buterin's disappointment toward proof-of-stake critics. Earlier this month, Hoskinson slammed Bitcoin developer Jimmy Song for his statements about proof-of-stake networks.

The Cardano executive retweeted Song's statement that noted, "Proof-of-stake does not solve the Byzantine Generals' Problem. Therefore, it does not provide decentralized consensus. If you didn't understand this tweet, then you are completely unqualified to make any claims about proof-of-stake."

Hoskinson reacted and commented, "The level of stupid here is beyond explanation."

He also reacted again to another tweet from Song saying, "I didn't know Jimmy did sequels, but the stupid is back and boy it did not disappoint."