Gradual transition to an alternate proof without a hard fork.

Summary:

It is possible to transition from Proof of Work to Proof of Something Else in a soft-fork way if miners and users support it. The Proof of Work difficulty would need to drop to one, and the rest would be solved by Proof of Something Else. Old miners could still use ASIC miners to produce blocks with higher Proof of Work, but then their blocks would be rejected. As long as miners produce enough Proof of Something Else and most nodes use upgraded software, it should be resistant to attacks. The most difficult part is getting miners and users to support it.In the bitcoin-dev mailing list, Erik Aronesty proposed an idea that assumes the existence of a proof-of-burn that accurately models the investment in and development of ASICs. This proof-of-burn would be required on every block, making it more expensive for miners, causing Proof of Work to slowly drop. Eventually, the proof-of-burn required would be increased to 100% of the "required work" to mine. It is suggested that a hard fork would not be necessary to transition to another "required proof", such as a quantum POW or POB, as long as existing nodes are not aware of the rules and continue to validate.

Updated on: 2023-06-14T20:16:02.931206+00:00