Vitalik Buterin proposes greater integration of Dogecoin (DOGE) and Ethereum

If Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin gets his way, Dogecoin could be set for an overhaul that would see a major step forward in its evolution.

With DOGE struggling to recapture its previous form from earlier on in the year, this proposal could go some way to reigniting interest in the controversial meme token.

How can Dogecoin evolve?

As a “Twitter experiment,” Buterin posted a tweet requesting people he follows ask him anything on both crypto, and non-crypto, related questions.

Doing a random twitter experiment just on this day. Only the 268 people I follow can reply to this tweet. Feel free to ask things and I’ll talk about anything crypto or non-crypto related.

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 1, 2021

The CEO of Three Arrows Capital, Su Zhu, duly responded by quizzing Buterin on his Dogecoin/Ethereum integration ideas.

Similar to what Ethereum is trying to accomplish with ETH 2.0, Buterin suggested Dogecoin change its consensus mechanism from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS). He added that, by using Ethereum code, developers wouldn’t need to start from scratch.

“Personally, I hope that doge can switch to PoS soon, perhaps using ethereum code.”

PoS vs. PoW is a hotly contested topic, as advocates for both sides maintain superiority.

Generally speaking, PoS offers more scalability and throughput. But a fully decentralized, high hash rate (strong miner supported) PoW network is said to be more secure.

However, the decisive factor in current times seems to boil down to environmental concerns, favoring PoS over PoW networks. Critics of PoW say the high electricity consumption and use of polluting power sources are unsustainable in the long term.

Buterin also has a charity proposal

Dogecoin detractors often point out the protocol’s inflationary supply. Thus questioning how a token with infinite supply has value.

DOGE was initially launched with a 100 billion fixed token supply. But, on the basis of promoting its use as a tipping mechanism, while also discouraging hodling, developers removed this limit. Currently, $5 billion of DOGE are added to the supply each year.

On that, Buterin said he’s in favor of keeping the inflationary issuance. But rather than entering into the token supply, he suggests channeling the funds into a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that “funds global public goods.” This, Buterin said, is in keeping with Dogecoin’s “wholesome ethos.”

“I also hope they don’t cancel the 5b/year annual PoW issuance, instead they put it in some kind of DAO that funds global public goods. Would fit well with dogecoin’s non-greedy wholesome ethos.“

Earlier this year, as Dogecoin was spiking higher, its co-founder Billy Markus resurfaced by posting an open letter on Reddit explaining why he disappeared and what he wants for DOGE going forward.

In it, he said it’s his hope that Dogecoin can be a force for good. While not explicitly stated, Markus implied that this would go some way to countering the negative aspects often found in the crypto space.