Proof-of-work is a feature, not a flaw, says Kadena CEO

• The former JPMorgan executive believes that the Proof of Work is a feature.

• He pointed out that Kadena is not ready to move away from the Proof of Work mechanism yet.

• We were very thrilled by the fundamental design of Bitcoin, the CEO added.

Kadena will not let go of its Proof of Work mechanism

Kadena founder and CEO Stuart Popejoy revealed in a recent interview that he believes that the Proof of Work (PoW) mechanism is a feature and not a flaw.

PoW has come under pressure over the past few years due to its massive use of energy. It is the mechanism behind some of the leading cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Litecoin.

Its energy-intensive nature saw Ethereum migrate to a Proof of Stake mechanism earlier this year. He admitted that they were thrilled by the fundamental design of Bitcoin. Popejoy stated that;

“We believe that the real problem with proof of work is not that it uses energy; it’s that it uses energy inefficiently. Bitcoin: there’s all this energy being used, and it’s not improving the system. It’s the same slow system it was 15 years ago.”

Popejoy believes that PoW is the fairest way to distribute money within an ecosystem. He pointed out that;

“Proof of stake produces money, and then it uses ownership of money to determine who runs the system. Proof-of-work is the fairest distribution for getting coins into people’s hands.”

Kadena needed to become a public blockchain

Popejoy touched on several areas, including when Kadena transitioned to a public blockchain. He stated that;

“There was an adjustment period where we had to learn to love crypto. The people who participate in your ecosystem really are your network, and that is obviously not a very enterprise-y thing, that’s very grassroots.”

The CEO also stated that while being a private blockchain has its merits, the transition to a public blockchain was required to enable it to provide services to enterprises and businesses. He said;

“There was some innovation in private blockchain for a second, and that kind of represents us. However, there was this idea that we needed something […] that could serve business-scale needs, and that’s how we arrived at our version of a public blockchain.”

The CEO revealed that Kadena has always focused on smart contracts and the scalability of the blockchain. He concluded that;

“We focused on safe smart contracts and scalability as a safety thing, in the sense of risk management, like if you have to wait a day for your Bitcoin transaction to go through when the system is backed up.”