Buterin Proposes Bitcoin Cash Integration to Scale Ethereum in Short Term

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed to use the Bitcoin Cash blockchain as a temporary scalability solution for the Ethereum network. The programmer introduced a summary of the idea in a July 13 post on the Ethereum Research.

As previously reported, the Ethereum network has experienced some scalability issues, with its native blockchain capable of processing as few as 15 transactions per second (TPS), while its major competitor Ripple is reportedly estimated to have a TPS capacity of 1,500. 

As such, the Ethereum community has been working on Ethereum 2.0, a major network upgrade that is expected to improve its scalability once ETH shifts from proof-of-work to the proof-of-stake algorithm.

While the first stages of the Ethereum 2.0 shift are expected to come in early 2020, Buterin has now suggested deploying other blockchains as a new option for improving Ethereum scalability in the short term. Specifically, Buterin said the Bitcoin Cash blockchain is a perfect match for this purpose as the hard fork cryptocurrency provides a data throughput of around 53 kilobytes (KB) per second, as opposed to Ethereum’s 8 KB.

Additionally, Buterin outlined three other compelling reasons for using the blockchain, including low fees, the readiness of necessary machinery and the Bitcoin Cash community’s openness to people using the blockchain “for whatever they want as long as they pay the transaction fees.”

In the post, Buterin noted Bitcoin Cash’s 10 minute block time as the main impediment to becoming a good Ethereum scalability solution. However, the expert noted that this problem could be solved by zero-confirmation payments using techniques like Avalanche pre-consensus.

The crypto community on Twitter took a negative view on Buterin’s new Bitcoin Cash integration proposal, with some commentators forecasting that such a scenario could lead both Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash to a faster collapse.

Francis Pouliot, co-founder of blockchain consulting firm Catallaxy, tweeted that the recent proposal by Buterin signifies a failure of the Ethereum project, while Bitcoin integration will just delay and unsolved scalability crisis.

Recently, another Ethereum co-founder, Joseph Lubin, claimed that Ethereum has “already scaled quite significantly.”

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