2020 and the Coming Proof-of-Stake Wars

As we head into 2020 and the prominence of blockchain and cryptocurrencies begin to become more identifiable on the world stage, there is a new battle for supremacy heating up in the crypto sphere.

The Proof-of-Stake Wars.

This recent article posted on Coindesk highlights one of the bigger fights currently taking place. The Vertalo transfer agent, which issues digital securities and manages data for the broker-dealers, issuers, custodians and exchanges it connects, has chosen Tezos as its preferred blockchain and looks to have its customers issue securities on the Tezos blockchain.

This is significant because the company was originally operating on Ethereum but now encouraging its customers to switch over from the ETH platform and has developed the ability to convert ERC-20 tokens to Tezos-formatted smart contracts to help with the process. Vertalo chose Tezos was because its smart contract abilities are available in multiple programming languages, it is currently capable of processing a higher TPS, and its stable network participants.

As Ethereum is moving ever closer to Ethereum 2.0 which includes the number 2 crypto switching from its current Proof-of-Work algorithm to a Proof-of-Stake model, projects built on Ethereum will increasingly need to consider if they want to be there through the process and “work through the kinks.”

There are sure to be significant bugs that need to be addressed and network functioning could be hampered. On the other hand, there are some top-notch blockchain projects emerging as industry leaders that were originally designed as proof-of-stake chains and operating as such already. Projects like Tezos, Algorand, EOS, Cardano and Cosmos have already established themselves as possible contenders as development continues to heat up.

With one of the dominant conversations in today’s media centering around climate change and green energy, it’s likely that proof-of-work and its energy-intensive nature will begin to fall out of favor with large segments of the population. If they are to be brought into the crypto fold, they will likely come through a “green-friendly” POS project. And the fact that Bitcoin absolutely dominates when it comes to Hashing power is a fact that is not likely to change when it comes to POW projects, prompting others to work on developing security without mining.

And thus, the Proof-of-Stake wars commence. It is not yet known who will come out on top, but it is sure to be a wild and exciting ride.