Now that the Ethereum merge is complete, Vitalik Buterin thinks other blockchains like Dogecoin and Zcash should follow suit. “As proof of stake matures, I expect it to just increase in legitimacy more and more over time,” Vitalik said over video chat at the Messari Mainnet conference on Friday. Ethereum executed its long-awaited merge event, moving its main network from the energy-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) model to the more energy-efficient proof-of-stake (PoS) model. The high-stakes event went smoothly, said Buterin, despite every test network merge experiencing “some kind of bug.”.