I have been trying to invest according to a Buffet-esque long-game strategy, which is no small feat in the realm of crypto. I was thinking about going full ETH maxi, but the gas is starting to really bum me out. The way I see it, a blockchain needs to be able to overcome the two main criticisms of the technology: environmental sustainability and scalability.
When it comes to sustainability, you can pretty much write off any PoW chains. Proof of stake seems to be the most promising low carbon consensus mechanism, but I’m open to suggestions for an alternative form.
When it comes to scalability, I think the question of throughput is the most important factor. As blockchains expand from defi and NFTs into gaming, VR/metaverse, and general purpose data platforms, throughput and TPS are becoming limiting factors to mass adoption. Similar to my proof of stake persuasions, I believe sharding to be the most promising way forward for blockchains, but can be convinced otherwise.
Harmony was ostensibly the first sharded, proof-of-stake blockchain. But it’s pretty far down the stack and I don’t anticipate it overtaking ETH before they figure out their throughput issues. NEAR Protocol’s sharding announcement today seems to lay the groundwork for infinite scalability, plus they are carbon neutral and PoS, but I don’t want to put all my eggs in one basket.
So my question is: Which chains show the most promise in terms of sustainability and scalability from your perspective? Are there any other PoS / sharded chains I should look into, or should I evolve beyond my PoS / Sharding chauvinism? Discuss…
submitted by /u/aerios01
[link] [comments]