> Fundamentally, the proof of work system locks in longer chains because of all the work that was done historically. VDFs used in Ethereum's hybrid PoS replica

> Fundamentally, the proof of work system locks in longer chains because of all the work that was done historically. VDFs used in Ethereum's hybrid PoS replicate this property to large-enough extent. In case of PoW the resource you MUST spent to replicate the chain is electric energy, lots of it. In case of VDF it's mostly time. So one can imagine launching multiple "fake" chains using stolen/bought private keys, but such chain will get banned via software upgrade immediately after detection. Very hard to pull off, impossible to pull of multiple times. EDIT: my bad, stolen keys will get banned by the network immediately and automatically. They break "equivocation" rule.