Vitalik Buterin answers PoS critics and defends The Merge

Vitalik Buterin, the Canadian programmer co-founder of Ethereum, has spoken out to defend his idea. In fact, he hit back at critics of the Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm in a recent thread on Twitter.

It all started when a user said that ETH was a security and therefore controlled by a central entity. Furthermore, the user highlighted that ETH holders cannot participate in the voting process to change their properties.

Although the debate around this topic is old, the post went viral on Tuesday and became a major debate on the social network. A pro-ETH Twitter user, who goes by the name cyberhokie.eth, countered the argument. As the user pointed out, none of this is true. After all, governance is done through validator nodes.

Buterin comes out and defends PoS on Ethereum

This also sparked a backlash from Buterin who called PoS detractors “ill-informed Bitcoiners”. Buterin urged PoS critics to do some research before talking “bullshit”.

Without mincing words, Buterin said the idea that PoS has centralized governance is a “blatant lie”.

In addition, he informed that the validation system in PoS and PoW is practically the same, only changing the way in which it occurs.

“Nodes reject invalid blocks, in PoS and PoW. It’s not difficult,” added Buterin.

The Merge

After a series of delays, ETH is expected to finally exit the PoW model later this year. The upgrade will allow you to drastically reduce the power consumption of the second largest blockchain. This is because the network will no longer rely on cryptocurrency miners to protect it.

Last week, ETH’s Sepolia testnet successfully performed The Merge. The Merge is the moment when Ethereum moves from PoW to PoS is called.