Ethereum community bemoans Vitalik Buterin’s role as Dogecoin advisor

Speaking to the UpOnly YouTube channel, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said he became convinced by Proof-of-Stake (PoS) in 2014, leading him to go that direction ever since.

One of the factors behind this decision is the environmental impact of Proof-of-Work (PoW) mining. But Buterin points out that even though most PoW cryptocurrencies are switching to PoS, that hasn’t stopped the “public narrative machine” from spouting anti-crypto sentiment from an environmental perspective.

“Even now, you can go out and say, “Hey guys, you do realize that every major cryptocurrency, except for one, has an active plan to switch to Proof-of-Stake?” To them it doesn’t matter.”

Buterin concluded his point by saying more anti-crypto environmentalists will be convinced once Ethereum is PoS, and Dogecoin and Zcash’s “plans are further along.”

With that, UpOnly hosts Cobie and Ledger both expressed surprise at Dogecoin’s PoS plans.

Is Dogecoin moving to Proof-of-Stake?

As an advisor to the Dogecoin Foundation, Vitalik Buterin first suggested Dogecoin transition to PoS in a “random Twitter experiment” reply in September 2021.

While this was primarily dismissed as fanciful thinking, in late December 2021, the point cropped up again following the release of Dogecoin’s updated “trailmap.”

Among the various proposals being worked on was “community staking.” As the name suggests, this will reward $DOGE holders for staking their tokens like what already happens on PoS chains.

“The Foundation are also working with Vitalik (Founder of the Ethereum blockchain) on crafting a uniquely Doge proposal for a ‘Community Staking’ version of PoS that will allow everyone, not just the big players to participate in a way that rewards them for their contribution to running the network.”

The trailmap did not specifically say Dogecoin is transitioning to PoS. Many assumed community staking would emulate Ethereum’s current hybrid model, which operates both a PoW and PoS chain running in parallel.

However, in selling the PoS concept, Buterin said that every significant crypto, except Bitcoin, is transitioning to PoS. And more people will become convinced with crypto (environmentally speaking) once Dogecoin and Zcash’s “plans are further along.”

With that, did Buterin inadvertently reveal a complete PoS transition for Dogecoin?

The Ethereum community wants Buterin to focus on ETH

Either way, Dogecoin’s community staking plans do require Buterin’s contribution. And if a complete PoS transition is happening, Buterin’s time will be further occupied.

This hasn’t gone down well with some Ethereum investors who say helping Dogecoin demonstrates where Buterin’s priorities lie.

“Man is acting like Ethereum is some side project and Doge is the main project”

Those opposed to Buterin helping Dogecoin question why he would divide his time when high gas fees remain a problem, and there’s still a mountain to climb to finish ETH 2.0 (or “Consensys Layer” as it should be called from now on.)