Hoskinson Slams Jimmy Song for Ridiculing Proof-of-Stake

Charles Hoskinson, an American entrepreneur and co-founder of the Cardano and Ethereum Blockchains has voiced his anger at the recent criticism of the proof-of-stake consensus method made by cryptographer Jimmy Song. Vitalik Buterin, a former colleague and co-founder of Ethereum, scolded the engineer just 48 hours earlier.

Decentralization is the backbone of blockchain technology, which is why Jimmy Song tweeted on July 2 that the proof-of-stake consensus method does not solve the Byzantine Generals Problem.

On Monday night, Hoskinson quoted the tweet and remarked, “the amount of stupidity here is beyond comprehension.” A further tweet inside the conversation from Song bolstered his argument by stating that PoS makes it impossible to determine the canonicity of a blockchain without consulting a central authority, therefore ruling out decentralization as an option.

Song’s accusations have been addressed in a paper on Pos Blockchain titled “Ouroboros Genesis: Composable Proof-of-Stake Blockchains with Dynamic Availability,” according to Hoskinson.

Although his confidence is clearly shown in his declaration that anybody who does not comprehend his central claim is unqualified to discuss proof-of-stake,

Song’s argument has not only shocked Hoskinson, but Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also voiced his displeasure with Song’s allegations earlier in the day on Sunday. Buterin is of the opinion that a line of reasoning should not be condemned on the basis of “one-line” technicalities surrounding the “definition.”.

There is a theory known as the “Byzantine Generals Problem” that explains the difficulties that decentralized systems have in reaching an agreement when there is no central authority. Using miners as generals, the Proof-of-Work consensus process is used to address the age-old dilemma.

Despite this, several countries, like China, have banned or limited the use of the Proof-of-Work mechanism because it is so reliant on mining, a resource-intensive industry.

Proof-of-stake consensus is designed to address the environmental issues that Proof of Work created, yet some Bitcoin supporters and believers of PoW tend to feel that PoS is not entirely decentralized.

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