Charles Hoskinson says Ethereum is becoming the Hotel California of Crypto

The creator of IOG, the company that built the Cardano blockchain, has taken to Twitter to highlight the issue of the way Ethereum has implemented the Proof-of-Stake consensus protocol, which does not require as much energy to support a chain as Proof-of-Work does.

Charles Hoskinson has referred to Ethereum, which he once co-founded, as the Hotel California of the crypto space.

“Ethereum Is Becoming Crypto’s Hotel California”

In his tweet, Hoskinson has commented on the fact that Kraken does not allow users to withdraw their staked Ethereum tokens, saying that their ETH is not available to withdraw until the next planned Ethereum upgrade called Shanghai, which is coming in about half years after Merge.

Kraken support stated that this limitation does not come from the exchange, but from the Ethereum blockchain.

Advertisements

This is the second time the Cardano founder has commented on this, his first tweet about this on Friday, suggesting that there is another way to implement the Proof-of-Stake protocol. Cardano’s PoS does not require users’ ADA to be locked, as they are staked without leaving a user’s wallet and can be withdrawn at any time.

Now Hoskinson has compared Ethereum to the classic song “The Hotel California” by the Eagles band.

Ethereum is becoming the Hotel California of Crypto

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) 16 September 2022

“We’re all just prisoners here by our own power”says the song.

“The last thing I remember was me

Running towards the door

I had to find the passage back

To the place I was before

“Relax,” said the night man

“We are programmed to receive

You can check out whenever you want

But you can never leave”

However, in the comments thread, a Twitter user @StakeWithPride shared screenshots from Discord, saying that there is no ETA (estimated time of arrival) for ETH withdrawals and that they are not scheduled for Shanghai.

In these screenshots, Micah Zoltu, founder of Serv.eth Support, says that the information about withdrawals that open only after the Shanghai upgrade comes from exchanges. However, he admits that they believe allowing investors to “exit in 2023, rather than 2024” is so important at this stage.

“Ethereum players are rich, Cardano doesn’t have to be”

Earlier, @StakeWithPride shared another screenshot from a conversation with Zoltu, where the latter explained that since Ethereum players are wealthy and can afford to buy expensive specialized hardware, they don’t need to withdraw ETH right away and can wait until later. Thus, the “users’ needs” are prioritized over the needs of actors here.

On that, Hoskinson said that those who stake Cardano’s PoS protocol are ordinary people, who do not need to be wealthy to participate in Cardano staking. He emphasized that here lies the important difference between Ethereum and Cardano.

Stakeholders on Cardano are ordinary people who do not need to be wealthy. I guess that’s the philosophical difference

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) 15 September 2022