This is a detail about Ethereum almost nobody remembers:
Back in 2018, Ethereum almost made a decision that could have changed everything.
The proposal was called ProgPoW.
Miners loved it.
It would have kept Ethereum in Proof of Work longer.
More mining.
More rewards.
More control for them.
Vitalik didn’t like it.
At that time, miners had huge influence.
If ProgPoW passed, Proof of Stake would likely be delayed.
Maybe for years.
Ethereum was still inflating around 4–5% per year.
Millions of ETH being issued annually and Vitalik pushed the opposite direction.
He supported the difficulty bomb and he kept the pressure toward the Merge.
People called him paranoid.
Some said he was ignoring miners.
ProgPoW never made it in.
Ethereum stayed on the path to Proof of Stake.
In 2022, the Merge finally happened.
Mining ended.
Issuance dropped hard.
Inflation collapsed.
If Ethereum had stayed in Proof of Work:
They would have more inflation and more long-term sell pressure.
In 2026, Ethereum holds hundreds of billions in value.
Most people don’t remember how close it was to going the other way.