Charles Hoskinson Trolls Ethereum Says Stakers On Cardano ‘Are Everyday People Who Don’t Need To Be Wealthy’

Hoskinson continues to poke holes at Ethereum’s proof-of-stake implementation.

In a tweet on Thursday, the founder of Cardano’s development team, Input Output Global (IOG), Charles Hoskinson, noted that Cardano, unlike Ethereum, did not restrict participation in network staking and validation to the wealthy in response to a shared Discord message by an Ethereum developer stating that “stakers are, by definition wealthy,” in an attempt to explain why staked Ethereum is locked till a to be disclosed time after the Shanghai upgrade.

“Stakers on Cardano are everyday people who don’t need to be wealthy. I guess that’s the philosophical difference,” Hoskinson tweeted.

Stakers on Cardano are everyday people who don't need to be wealthy. I guess that's the philosophical difference https://t.co/ScJ6hZKlMi

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) September 15, 2022

It bears mentioning that the leaked message feeds into centralization concerns around The Merge as it explicitly states that only the wealthy, which usually make up the minority, can be network validators. To participate in network validation, you must stake a minimum of 32 ETH, over $47k, at today’s rates. The Crypto Basic reported yesterday that only two addresses processed over 46% of the network’s transactions following The Merge.

Meanwhile, censorship concerns remain as there is a concentration of staked ETH on centralized platforms, which are susceptible to government policy changes. These concerns have increased following US Treasury sanctions on Tornado Cash, forcing some US-based validators to ignore Tornado Cash transactions.

Notably, unlike Ethereum, Cardano uses a liquid staking system that does not lock user funds. Instead, users participate in network validation by delegating funds to stake pools that provide the necessary hardware while accessing their tokens at any time and still earning rewards on them with no minimum staking limit.

Despite current concerns, it is worth noting that The Ethereum Merge has delivered its promise to cut down on the network’s energy consumption. However, the asset price has not surged as some would have hoped but continues to decline, currently trading below the $1,500 price point.