Author: Keagan McClelland 2021-05-10 15:01:05
Published on: 2021-05-10T15:01:05+00:00
The discussion on the bitcoin-dev mailing list revolves around the possibility of implementing proof of stake (PoS) for Bitcoin mining in the future. While some members like SatoshiSingh express concern about the high energy usage of bitcoin mining, others like Keagan and Jeremy argue that PoS is not consistent with Bitcoin's objectives. Keagan's main problem with PoS is that it requires permission of coin holders to enter into the system, which is not true of proof of work. Additionally, PoS must have a trusted means of timestamping to regulate overproduction of blocks, which introduces trust and is generally considered to be a nonstarter in Bitcoin. Erik Aronesty suggests that proof-of-burn (PoB) has a higher likelihood of being a good enough security mechanism and solving the nothing-at-stake problem. However, the only issue with a quality PoB implementation is a robust solution to the block-timing problem. The discussion concludes with the understanding that the bar to clear for consensus algorithms is very high, and PoS to date has not proposed, much less demonstrated, a set of properties that is consistent with Bitcoins objectives. Despite the potential benefits of PoS, its implementation for Bitcoin would require significant controversy and a hard fork, which many members are not willing to consider at this point.
Updated on: 2023-06-14T20:50:33.347515+00:00