• A recent survey shows most Dogecoin (DOGE) users would not prefer a PoS shift despite the government’s pressure on environmental impact.
• The Dogecoin network had over 5.2 million addresses and facilitated more than 170 million transactions through Proof-of-Work consensus mechanisms as of Monday.

The leading meme coin backed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Dogecoin (DOGE), has thrived in the past partially due to its authenticity from its inception. As one of the oldest and top surviving digital assets with a capitalization of about $8.76 billion, Dogecoin enjoys a market dominance of about 0.8 percent. However, the Dogecoin future growth prospects could be at stake as some community members ponder on transitioning the network to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) secured network, similar to Ethereum (ETH).

According to a recent X platform poll initiated by Marshall Hayner, CEO at Metallicus and Co-Founder of FBBT Holdings, approximately 40 percent of the Dogecoin community has no issue with PoS transition while 60 percent vehemently opposes the idea.

Essentially, staking would involve more community members with even fewer funds compared to the mining industry which is plagued with high difficulty. Notably, staking can accommodate small coin holders but mining involves high completion of updating rigs to keep up with ever-rising difficulty. According to the latest on-chain data, Dogecoin had a total mining difficulty of about 11.65 (M).

Why Dogecoin Veterans Oppose PoS Transition

The recent X platform poll on whether Dogecoin should transition to a PoS-secured blockchain triggered a heated debate among the top contributors. According to a reply by Mishaboar, a popular Dogecoin network contributor, such an idea would result in a fork that could divide and weaken the community. Despite the push by most governments around the world for blockchains to adopt environmentally friendly consensus mechanisms, Mishaboar thinks a Dogecoin transition to PoS would centralize the network.

“Research on alternative consensus mechanisms is no problem if done responsibly, relying on solid data, and avoiding hype. But it seems most PoS chains have underdelivered, are obscenely centralized and run by wealthy developers holding huge bags, have failed catastrophically, and/or are a pain to use (playing with Ethereum feels like highway robbery),” Mishaboar argued.

The Dogecoin investor added that the PoS consensus mechanism allows centralized exchanges to hold huge amounts of coins for users seeking to get APR interest. As a result, the users are exposed to securities risk including hacking and exchanges rug pulls. Moreover, centralized exchanges do not provide coin holders with securities keys to their digital assets.

Nonetheless, the PoS consensus mechanism has its advantages including low cost and faster transactions, which Mishabar argued can be circumnavigated through integration of payment providers.

“Biggest advantage of PoS for a currency is lower energy usage and potentially faster transactions: but a) for most transactions we do not really need that and b) for those transactions which need that, that seems achievable with other solutions like payment channels, integration with payment providers (with all the centralization issues this might carry, of course),” Mishaboar concluded.

Recommended for you:

• Buy Bitcoin Guide
• Bitcoin Wallet Tutorial
• Check 24-hour Bitcoin Price
• More Bitcoin News
• What is Bitcoin?