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> Proof of Stake is superior to Proof of Work because with PoW, it's possible for someone to take over the network and tamper with the data if they control more

> Proof of Stake is superior to Proof of Work because with PoW, it's possible for someone to take over the network and tamper with the data if they control more than 50% of the mining power. The cost of buying new mining hardware grows linearly as you buy more of it. On the other hand, with PoS, an attacker would need to control more than 50% of tokens, the cost of acquiring tokens grows exponentially as you approach the 50% mark (it likely won't even come close) since bids drive the token price up. You don’t need to own tokens to have control over them, you just need to offer staking as a feature. See Coinbase.

cryptica 5y ago
This actually helps with decentralization since there are usually multiple exchanges and it's very rare for 1 exchange to hold more than 10% of all tokens.
- runeks 5y ago
  I’m not saying you’re wrong, but what’s the source of that estimate?
  - cryptica 5y ago
    I'm a blockchain developer. Worked on a top PoS blockchain for several years then launched 2 additional PoS blockchains since. I've also analyzed many other PoS blockchains over the years. Exchange wallets improve the security of a PoS blockchain because these wallets are high-exposure and community can be confident that the different exchange wallets belong to different entities. Because the ledger is public, existing big token holders can agree to HODL some % of their tokens if they are concerned that an attacker is trying to acquire 50% of all tokens. The main concern in PoS are 'sock puppets' - One person controlling multiple accounts pretending to be multiple different people (to evade detection). Because exchange wallets are well known, community can be confident that they are not sock puppets; this means that exchanges add some degree of security to the blockchain... In aggregate, those tokens are safe; it's extremely unlikely that all exchange wallets would be hacked at the same time (unless there is something wrong with the blockchain code).

cryptica 5y ago

This actually helps with decentralization since there are usually multiple exchanges and it's very rare for 1 exchange to hold more than 10% of all tokens.

runeks 5y ago
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but what’s the source of that estimate?
- cryptica 5y ago
  I'm a blockchain developer. Worked on a top PoS blockchain for several years then launched 2 additional PoS blockchains since. I've also analyzed many other PoS blockchains over the years. Exchange wallets improve the security of a PoS blockchain because these wallets are high-exposure and community can be confident that the different exchange wallets belong to different entities. Because the ledger is public, existing big token holders can agree to HODL some % of their tokens if they are concerned that an attacker is trying to acquire 50% of all tokens. The main concern in PoS are 'sock puppets' - One person controlling multiple accounts pretending to be multiple different people (to evade detection). Because exchange wallets are well known, community can be confident that they are not sock puppets; this means that exchanges add some degree of security to the blockchain... In aggregate, those tokens are safe; it's extremely unlikely that all exchange wallets would be hacked at the same time (unless there is something wrong with the blockchain code).