I like that this actually covers why each piece is needed.
My only beef with this system is the proof of work, which leads to an arms race in electricity consumption. Proof of stake is better, and frankly, distributed timestamps don't need a race to solve a problem every time something has to be timestamped.
For currency, it would actually be nicer to have a system that treats trust/credit/reputation as the scarce resource. It would help people who aren't rich in the traditional sense nevertheless organize and help each other, and would allow people to "create their own currency" in communities, or the equivalent of that, that they aren't able to do now.
I'm familiar with proof of work and how it works within a blockchain to secure blocks.
I keep hearing about prof of stake. I'm very interested in it, however I haven't found an explanation that clearly explains to me how it works. I've looked at the Wiki article and read a little about Peercoin. Do you know of any article, video or source that may help explain exactly how proof of stake works?
If you haven't read the peercoin whitepaper[1], it may get you a bit closer to an understanding. That being said, I still don't have a solid grasp of exactly how coins destroyed results in solving blocks...
Thank you! I can't believe I missed it and didn't think to check for a white paper for this. Especially since that's what really cleared up bitcoin's proof of work blockchain to me.
It sounds like it should be, but it isn't, lacking PoW, there's no reason not to create many possible blocks and without central check-pointing the whole thing falls apart. The problem with proof of stake is that nothing is at stake.
No. That is not a problem. Please read about the Slasher proof of stake algorithm. It is very easy to punish the creator of many possible blocks. People always use this nonesense phrase that "with proof of stake nothing is at stake". That is no problem. If the protocol allows that your mining profit is taken away and given to the next honest stakeholder then why do you say that it is a problem that nothing is at stake.
Yes it is a problem and last I checked, there's still no working PoS implementation that doesn't rely on central check-pointing. "Slasher" is an idea (likely full of unforeseen issues), not an implementation and until there's a working implementation that doesn't rely on central check-pointing, PoS is vapor-ware.
No, it's very easy to convince yourself that these problems are solved when they in fact are not. I have not seen any proof-of-stake mechanism which does not either require centralization (despite claims to the contrary), or devolve into proof-of-work as miners grind blocks until they find one that names themselves or one of their sock puppets as the next signer.
that part of the problem is partially solved. not every node has to "mine" all blocks. in fact in PoS there's no mining at all. the big problem is that you create all coins at genesis. there are a bunch of proposals and work in this direction.
i agree about the arms race, however block reward halving will diminish electricity requirements in a stepwise fashion and lessen the impact of this problem over time
My only beef with this system is the proof of work, which leads to an arms race in electricity consumption. Proof of stake is better, and frankly, distributed timestamps don't need a race to solve a problem every time something has to be timestamped.
For currency, it would actually be nicer to have a system that treats trust/credit/reputation as the scarce resource. It would help people who aren't rich in the traditional sense nevertheless organize and help each other, and would allow people to "create their own currency" in communities, or the equivalent of that, that they aren't able to do now.