CRYPTO NEWS: Cardano Creator Charles Hoskinson Talks Outcome of Battle Between Bitcoin and Ethereum

 

Hoskinson, the co-creator of Ethereum and the chief executive of IOHK, the firm behind blockchain platform Cardano ADA, tells AI researcher Lex Fridman that Bitcoin is an incredible first-generation product, but is becoming primitive relative to other, newer crypto projects. 

“The problem with Bitcoin is it is so slow, it’s like the mainframe programming of the past. The only reason it’s still around is because there was so much invested in keeping it around that we just kind of have to leave it there and say, ‘one day [the computer language] COBOL will die.'”

Hoskinson says there are fundamental improvements that would make Bitcoin a “competitive” system, in his view. He points to Bitcoin’s slow and methodical development process as a hindrance.

The IOHK chief says that, Ethereum, Cardano’s primary competitor, doesn’t suffer from that same stagnancy.

“Ethereum’s getting to a point where it has a similar network effect to Bitcoin, but the community there is completely different in culture. They love evolving. They love upgrading – sometimes a little too much. And so that means if you look at the trajectory of things, if I had to bet [on] just those two systems, Bitcoin or Ethereum, I would say nine times out of 10 Ethereum is going to win the fight against Bitcoin, if it was the only competitor. But obviously we’re here, and a lot of other people are here, so there’s different things going on. It’s a much more complex game.” 

Bitcoin proponents argue the pace of its technical progress protected BTC from outside influence and supported its rise from humble beginnings to a brand name on a global scale.

They also point to the top cryptocurrency’s unparalleled level of decentralization and security, as well as its monetary policy and limited supply cap of 21 million coins.