Author: Keagan McClelland 2021-06-24 00:37:07
Published on: 2021-06-24T00:37:07+00:00
In a discussion on the bitcoin-dev mailing list, participants debated whether Proof of Stake (PoS) is permissioned or permissionless. One participant argued that PoS requires permission from the previous owner of a token to acquire it via transfer or sale and therefore is permissioned, while another participant countered that PoS is still permissionless as there is no significant permission needed to enter the market for minting blocks. The difference between PoS and Proof of Work (PoW) was also discussed, with one participant pointing out that in PoS, the quorum of coin holders can block the exchange of coins if they are going to a particular destination. However, another participant argued that this power does not translate into the ability to block acquisition of hashpower itself, which is different from PoW where miners with more than 50% of the hashrate can censor transactions by orphaning blocks containing them. The discussion also touched on the barrier to entry for PoS versus PoW, with one participant noting that setting up a validator for PoS is accessible to anyone with a raspberry Pi and web connection, whereas mining hardware for PoW is expensive and time-consuming to configure. Overall, the discussion sought to clarify the nuances of PoS and its relationship to permissionlessness and decentralization.
Updated on: 2023-06-14T21:10:22.717743+00:00