Solana Co-Founder: People Will Stop Using Bitcoin If It Doesn’t Move To Proof of Stake

Anatoly Yakovenko, the co-founder of Solana blockchain, has also joined the long list of people who want Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, to transition to the proof of stake (PoS) consensus algorithm.

In a recent interview on CNBC with Kate Rooney, Yakovenko stated that it’s necessary for the flagship cryptocurrency Bitcoin to transition to an environmentally friendly consensus mechanism to maintain its popularity and usage.

Anatoly Yakovenko noted:

“This is probably the most controversial thing that you’ll get me to say but eventually if it [Bitcoin] doesn’t move to proof of stake, nobody is going to use it.”

It’s More Efficient to Build a Proof of Stake (PoS) Network

The Impacts of Bitcoin mining on the environment are part of his reasons for suggesting a transition to the PoS network. In the course of the interview, Solana’s co-founder pointed out that it’s simply more efficient to build a proof of stake consensus mechanism, adding that it offers the same level of protection as the energy-consuming proof of work (PoW) network.

Yakovenko noted that Bitcoin’s nature as PoW crypto makes it thrive as a store of value rather than a suitable means of payment, unlike the rising layer-2 ecosystem. He said, “maybe that works for now but we’ll see what happens in ten years.”

It should be noted that Bitcoin was launched as a proof of work crypto in order to protect and prevent the network from double-spending. But these always result in huge consumption of energy.

According to the report recently published by the Solana Foundation, one transaction on the Bitcoin network consumes 6,995,592,000 Joules. On the other hand, one transaction on the Solana network consumes 2,707 Joules.

Chris Larsen, Ripple co-founder, who is currently the Executive Chairman of Ripple’s board of directors, is also in support of the suggestion. As reported in early April, Larsen promised to donate $5 million to the initiative.

Larsen and others even went as far as launching a campaign titled “Change the Code, Not the Climate” in order to canvass support for the initiative.

Speaking about Solana being energy-efficient, Yakovenko said, “I spent most of my career making code as energy-efficient on mobile as I could and I would be ashamed if Solana wasn’t as energy-efficient as possible.”

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