• Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin has specified his worries about Bitcoin’s sustainability in the future. 
• Buterin said Bitcoin transiting from PoW to PoS may not be “politically feasible.”

Ethereum founder and popular programmer Vitalik Buterin is worried about the security of Bitcoin in the future, and he has voiced his concerns. The Canadian programmer discussed his fears with Bloomberg’s Noah Smith. According to the published interview, which was conducted via email, the Ethereum founder stated two reasons for his worry over the security of Bitcoin in the long run. 

Ethereum founder expresses concerns about Bitcoin and its long-term sustainability

In his opinion, Bitcoin fees would not be sufficient for miners to sustain the network. Buterin believes that the amount of fee income will not be enough for miners to keep the system running. He noted that Bitcoin security would come entirely from the fees, which will not be adequate. 

Bitcoin fees are about $300,000 per day and haven’t grown that much over the last five years. Ethereum is much more successful at this, because the Ethereum blockchain is much more designed to support usage and applications.

Furthermore, the Ethereum creator said his second concern about Bitcoin and its long-term sustainability is the Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake situation. He explained that Proof-of-Work offers less security over each dollar spent on the transaction fees than Proof-of-Stake. Buterin added that Bitcoin’s migration from PoW to PoS could be “politically infeasible.” He wrote:

What would a future look like when there’s $5 trillion of Bitcoin, but it only takes $5 billion to attack the chain? Of course, if Bitcoin actually gets attacked, I do expect that the political will to switch to at least hybrid proof of stake will quickly appear, but I expect that to be a painful transition.

The Ethereum Merge

Further, in the interview, Buterin also spoke about the coming Ethereum Merge, which is scheduled for this month. The Ethereum Foundation has confirmed that the Merge upgrade will happen in two stages. The Foundation said the “Proof-of-Stake upgrade is finally here!” after years of hard work. The development will begin with a network upgrade which is the first process; after that is the execution layer’s transition from PoW to PoS.

Furthermore, the migration will begin with the Bellatrix upgrade on the Beacon Chain on the 6th of September. It starts at 11:34:47 am UTC. Following the initial process is the Paris upgrade, which will be triggered by a ToTal Difficulty threshold called the “Terminal Total Difficulty (TTD). The Foundation added that the TTD trigger is expected to happen between the 10th and 20th of September. 

The programmer concluded the interview with his view on crypto adoption by all and sundry. He stated that cryptocurrencies in 2022 feel “meaningfully useful” with governments and organizations using digital assets to send and receive payments. Buterin wrote:

The future still feels less uncertain, but we have much more of a view than before as to how it’s all going to play out.