As the completion of the Merge nears, where Ethereum moves from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS), Ethereum is poised for a significant, transformational upgrade that may migrate the blockchain from a pretty cool experiment to ongoing relevance in the land of digital assets. In the light of the Merge, CI has received a comment from Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Bitfinex as well as Tether, noting that while Bitfinex will support the Merge as well as supporting the trading of ETHW – the fork of Ethereum to keep PoW as an option, it remains primarily a “Bitcoin-first” marketplace.
Ardoino shared his belief that Ethereum falls short in regards as a method of digital currency in comparison to Bitcoin.
“While Bitcoin is a form of money, Ethereum is stuck between claims of being a form of money and claims of being a platform, but ETH cannot compete with Bitcoin on the money front because there is no fixed supply, and it isn’t really a world computer yet because it has a shared global state and hence too slow to be scalable. The Merge will not fix transaction fees or make Ethereum any more decentralized. The Merge has put a huge focus on Ethereum, but what will we be left with? We will still need L2s, there will still be times of network stress, and the congestion, and high gas fees, which have yet to solve themselves will likely still exist. The real message here isn’t what the Merge will change but what asset already exists that provides the core themes of our industry, which includes true decentralization. The fact of the matter is that Bitcoin is the only asset out there that has a solid narrative, one that hasn’t changed. Ethereum still doesn’t match Bitcoin because its narrative keeps shifting.”
Meanwhile, the regulatory wheels keep churning and more rules are anticipated soon which may both benefit the crypto markets as well as possibly undermine certain aspects of digital assets. While Bitcoin appears to be recognized globally for not being a security, regulators are not very clear about everything else.