Author: Keagan McClelland 2021-06-23 18:14:04
Published on: 2021-06-23T18:14:04+00:00
In a recent bitcoin-dev mailing list discussion, the permissionless nature of Proof of Stake (PoS) was debated. The argument made was that PoS is not permissionless as it requires permission from the previous owner of a token to have it via transfer or sale. This was countered by another member who stated that if there is a healthy exchange market for PoS Coin X with tens of thousands of participants bidding to buy and sell the coin for other currencies on the market, then there is no significant permission needed to enter the market for minting blocks for PoS Coin X. They argued that participation in any decentralized system requires the permission of at least one user in that system. The difference between PoS and Proof of Work (PoW) is that with PoS, the quorum of coin holders can block the exchange of said coins if they are going to a particular destination. However, nothing requires these staking nodes to include particular transactions into a block. With this in mind, one must require the permission of at least 51% of the coin holders to even receive those coins in the first place, which is not true in a PoW system. The argument against this was that the barrier to entry in PoS is lower than in PoW, as the professional/expert way of participating is accessible to anyone with a raspberry Pi and a web connection.The debate on the permissionless nature of PoS is ongoing, with some arguing that it is not truly permissionless due to the requirement of permission from the previous owner of a token, while others argue that participation in any decentralized system requires the permission of at least one user in that system. The fact remains that there is a healthy exchange market for PoS Coin X with tens of thousands of participants bidding to buy and sell the coin for other currencies on the market, making it relatively easy to enter the market for minting blocks for PoS Coin X.
Updated on: 2023-06-14T21:17:31.999254+00:00