- Vitalik Buterin published a critical paper in response to Elon Musk’s claim regarding DOGE’s scalability.
- The Ethereum co-founder noted the blockchain scalability will result in extreme centralization.
The co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain, Vitalik Buterin, has reacted to Elon Musk’s recent comment on DOGE increasing its block size by 10 times. Buterin explained the limit to blockchain scalability in a blog post published on the 23rd of May.
Elon Musk is known to have influenced the value of cryptocurrencies in recent years. Until recently, the Tesla CEO was bullish on Bitcoin, resulting in increases in the king coin. Musk began with the Bitcoin hashtag on his Twitter bio, which led to a spike in BTC price. Later, the CEO announced that Tesla would begin accepting Bitcoin payments in exchange for its product. In reaction, Bitcoin’s price jumped significantly.
However, Musk made a turn from supporting Bitcoin to support Dogecoin after claiming that the top cryptocurrency consumes more energy than some countries. Musk slammed BTC over energy usage and said Tesla would stop accepting BTC payments. Shortly after the statement, Bitcoin suffered huge losses and has since then been on a decline. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is down 2.36 percent to $35,657.
A Twitter user and “former Bitcoin maximalist” has highlighted the reason Musk is choosing DOGE over BTC. According to the Twitter user, Dogecoin has less environmental impact compared to Bitcoin. Also, the tweet explained that DOGE has faster transaction speeds, charges lower fees, and “regular folks” can afford the coin because of its high supply.
Musk replied to the tweet, saying:
Ideally, Doge speeds up block time 10X, increases block size 10X & drops fee 100X. Then it wins hands down.
Buterin has, however, challenged Musk’s claim regarding an increase in DOGE scalability.
The Ethereum co-founder noted that seeking a sharp increase in scalability will lead to extreme centralization, which is not in line with the elements of a blockchain.
According to Buterin, decentralization reduces the risk for a blockchain to have a single point of failure. He added that decentralization gives protection against coordinated attacks.
Speaking further, Buterin said that decentralization is essential for regular users to run a node. In a statement, the Ethereum co-founder stated:
For a blockchain to be decentralized, it’s crucially important for regular users to be able to run a node, and to have a culture where running nodes is a common activity.
After Buterin’s paper on the limits to blockchain scalability which antagonized Musk’s claim on DOGE, the Tesla CEO posted a tweet that hinted that Dogecoin will reach $1. The tweet is an image of DOGE and a one-dollar bill.
In another tweet, Musk uploaded a picture that shows a blurred one-dollar note and reads “cyberviking.” Additionally, Elon Musk captioned the image, “How much is that Doge in the window?”
DOGE gained 20 percent to reach an intraday high of $0.42. Dogecoin is currently trading at $0.3259 and has gained 74.60 percent in its 24-hour trading volume.
The value of DOGE has been a topic of discussion on social media as many believe that the coin will soon break the $1 barrier. Before now, the crypto community was expecting that DOGE will hit $1 after Elon Musk’s appearance on Saturday Night live on the 8th of May. However, DOGE fell 30 percent after the show.
