Author: yanmaani at cock.li 2021-06-24 17:34:54
Published on: 2021-06-24T17:34:54+00:00
Proof of Stake (PoS) is not a consensus system, and even if you solve all the incentive problems, it is constitutionally incapable of producing a consensus. To work, PoS requires a consensus on which block was seen first, but this opens the door to long-range attacks. Real-world implementations of PoS do away with this requirement by having each node decide for itself which block came first. In PoS, a quorum of coin holders can block the exchange of coins if they are going to a particular destination. This is not true in a Proof of Work (PoW) system, where there is no significant permission needed to enter the market for minting blocks. In a PoW system, if a colluding coalition of miners with more than 50% of the hashrate wants to censor transactions, they can do that by orphaning blocks that contain transactions they want to censor. Participation in any decentralized system requires the permission of at least one user in that system. Barrier to entry in PoW is a matter of hardware and energy, which exists for everyone, making it a permissionless cost. The PoS equivalent of buying mining hardware is setting up your own validator and not outsourcing that to anyone else. The idea that PoS is not permissionless is invalid, as participation in any decentralized system requires the permission of at least one user in that system. However, in PoS, the barrier to entry is being given permission by the previous owner of a token for you to have it via transfer or sale. If the previous owner refuses to give up the token they control, this becomes an infinitely high barrier to entry. Proof of stake is not relevant to permissionless protocols and thus not possibly relevant to decentralized protocols where control must be distributed to independent parties.
Updated on: 2023-06-14T21:28:05.105308+00:00