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Article author here. PoS validators have the power to propose new blocks and attest to the chain head. They cannot change the state transition function to allo
by 0xfoobar 4y ago
Article author here.
PoS validators have the power to propose new blocks and attest to the chain head. They cannot change the state transition function to allow false payments, just as BTC miners cannot use their block proposal power to mint arbitrary coin amounts.
- dragontamer 4y agoIf it's like BTC, then can't you spend coin, then attest that a different head was the correct chain, thereby undoing the transaction? (Assuming you have enough hashing power / staking power to get people to believe a different head)
- 0xfoobar 4y agoGreat question, PoS actually has stronger guarantees against double-spending than PoW does. For PoW you just need to temporarily rent enough hashpower to do a mild reorg. PoS has a concept called "block finality", where once a block has been marked finalized it cannot be reorged without committing to getting slashed for 1/3 of total staked ether (several billion dollars). Blocks typically get finalized after 6 minutes. This is possible because you can explicitly check whether validators have voted (attested) for two separate blocks at the same chain height.