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But cryptocurrencies don't appear to need proof of work.
by X6S1x6Okd1st 5y ago
But cryptocurrencies don't appear to need proof of work.
- cwkoss 5y agoProof of work has demonstrated security over time. It costs a lot to do so - as soon as Proof of Stake or another system can provide the same level of security assurance, the market will rapidly shift there to capture the benefit without the costs.
- X6S1x6Okd1st 5y agoI don't think the bitcoin community is capable of making a change that large at this point, other ideological objections that they have against PoS aside. Another option would be continually adjusting the block reward to not over subsidize mining.
- cwkoss 5y agoBlock reward is effectively adjusted via difficulty retargeting every 2 weeks. The amount issued doesn't change, but the expected value of a number of hashes changes significantly.
- X6S1x6Okd1st 5y agoBlock reward is only changed on halvenings. Difficulty retargeting changes to try to keep blocks and therefore bitcoin emissions per unit of time (10 minutes) the same. The issue is that there is now too much electricity & therefore carbon emissions being spent on security the bitcoin blockchain. If the bitcoin community could adjust this down for slightly lower 51% attack defense they might be able to avoid the pressure from outside groups. But the bitcoin community has shown it's self unable to make changes or establish any consensus outside of what is already believed.