Author: Mark Friedenbach 2014-04-27 01:22:07
Published on: 2014-04-27T01:22:07+00:00
The discussion revolves around the possibility of using Proof-of-Stake (PoS) as a replacement for Proof-of-Work (PoW) mining. While some have proposed protocols involving PoS mechanism to eliminate checkpoints, others believe that without an existing mechanism for enforced scarcity (such as PoW), PoS cannot work in a consensus algorithm. One issue with PoS is that there are no stakes involved and miners can sign as many different forks as they wish, which could result in double-spends at will. However, Gareth Williams suggested that coinbases only mature if nobody publishes proof that you signed a competing block, which would make attempting to sign and publish more than one block at the same height punishable. Stephen Reed proposed to create a Bitcoin branch that provides a sandboxed testbed for researching the best PoS implementations, although this was met with mixed opinions. A poll conducted on bitcointalk.org showed minority support for Bitcoin PoS, but most voters preferred to download and run the existing PoW program to fight the change. Nonetheless, Reed's goal is to develop, test and document PoS, while exploring its vulnerabilities and fixing them transparently. Mark Friedenbach doubts there is a solution to the fundamental issue with PoS, but acknowledges that it originated as a mechanism for eliminating checkpoints and is still of concern to many in the community.
Updated on: 2023-06-08T21:17:20.365980+00:00