FTX CEO sees no future in Bitcoin payments, community fires back

cointelegraph.com:

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of crypto exchange FTX, has criticized the efficiency of Bitcoin (BTC) as a payment network, only to meet heavy backlash from the crypto community.

During an interview with the Financial Times, Bankman-Fried fueled environmental concerns associated with the Bitcoin network’s mining consensus, proof-of-work (PoW), and claimed it's not scalable enough to accommodate millions of transactions.

He advocated for the use of proof-of-stake mining consensus instead and claimed it is better suited for blockchain payment networks. He said:

Bankman-Fried comments resonated with the recent calls for a complete ban on PoW by a group of billionaire lobbyists comprising Ripple co-founder and several other environmental groups. However, Bitcoin proponents have been actively fighting against the ongoing narration calling for a change in the code of the Bitcoin network's mining consensus.

Related: Eager to work: Bitcoin switch to proof-of-stake remains unlikely

The likes of Jack Dorsey have already made it clear that PoS is more centralized and less secure than PoW.

The crypto community was not very pleased with FTX CEO’s recent comments. Many claimed the Bitcoin network is not intended to be a payment network, but rather a settlement one and layer-2 solutions such as the Lightning Network act as the main payment gateway. One user wrote:

Others reminded him of high centralization and concurrent shutdowns of PoS networks such as Solana. One user wrote:

Another user on Reddit wrote:

The FTX CEO took to Twitter himself to clear the air around his comments and said that he also talked about the Bitcoin network's potential as a store of value. He said:

The PoW vs PoS debate started last year when the Ethereum network