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Proof of stake changes the game and raises the bar for entry. It essentially creates a "rich get richer" scenario where the only way to increase the amount of c

Proof of stake changes the game and raises the bar for entry. It essentially creates a "rich get richer" scenario where the only way to increase the amount of coin you have is to either already have enough to participate in proof of stake, or to buy the coin from someone else. In that light, I wouldn't necessarily say that proof of stake is clearly better than proof of work. As an example, the proposed proof of stake mechanism for Ethereum requires 32 ETH, which is around $100k USD today. So established parties with capital will be able to stake, but your average person will not. I'm not sure I like that aspect of it.

gnramires 5y ago
It seems there will be pool staking in ETH, although I agree ideally staking threshold should be low. Consider the case with Proof of Work (ASIC-based): you need to purchase specialized hardware for several $k (apparently at least $2k), spend more on specialized infrastructure (power supply, cooling, servers) and live somewhere with almost free energy. Otherwise it's just not economical to mine. This leaves out the vast majority of people as well, and incentivizes (1) massive economies of scale of farms, (2) shady or corrupt deals for free energy, through local government or simply illegal connections to the network.