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I read the criticism in the paper you linked, the article itself, and the FAQ (https://eth.wiki/concepts/proof-of-stake-faqs https://eth.wiki/concepts/proof-of-

I read the criticism in the paper you linked, the article itself, and the FAQ (https://eth.wiki/concepts/proof-of-stake-faqs https://eth.wiki/concepts/proof-of-stake-faqs) linked in the article. In my opinion, it seems like the criticism in the paper is valid, but the conclusion is too dire. Proof of Stake is a different and weaker model of consensus than Proof of Work, but one that seems practical enough for the real world. To address the two main criticisms in the paper, the FAQ seems to state that there are decent schemes to inject enough randomness to prevent stake grinding, and that Proof of Stake does have a "weak subjectivity" as a con, but that in the real world coordination on which block is real to get started on out of band isn't too onerous. Asking a trusted friend or just looking at major forums or whatever would work to get started, and then after that you don't need to keep trusting a third party. Trust on first use, kinda, which a lot of us use every day, SSHing into things, but this case is even better because your first trust can be to a friend or trusted party. This seems like a very reasonable concession in order to not burn wild amounts of electricity and make the system much more sustainable.

chytrik 6y ago
> Asking a trusted friend or just looking at major forums or whatever would work to get started, and then after that you don't need to keep trusting a third party. Trust on first use... The 'weak subjectivity' issue doesn't just arise at the first use, it becomes a very important consideration in the event of a network fork (ie, a bad actor attacks the chain, and users attempt to defeat the attack by following a different chain that ignores the attacker). This is a much larger issue, it is easy to find consensus on a 'genesis block', but finding consensus in the moment of an uncertain/contentious chain-split is very different. At best it falls back to trusting some centralized party to make the correct choice, and then having a large enough portion of the users follow them.

chytrik 6y ago

> Asking a trusted friend or just looking at major forums or whatever would work to get started, and then after that you don't need to keep trusting a third party. Trust on first use... The 'weak subjectivity' issue doesn't just arise at the first use, it becomes a very important consideration in the event of a network fork (ie, a bad actor attacks the chain, and users attempt to defeat the attack by following a different chain that ignores the attacker). This is a much larger issue, it is easy to find consensus on a 'genesis block', but finding consensus in the moment of an uncertain/contentious chain-split is very different. At best it falls back to trusting some centralized party to make the correct choice, and then having a large enough portion of the users follow them.