4 ms·

I hate "proof-of-work." Sure, it's possible it's the only way to get all of the benefits that we all love. But I really wish there was a better way.

drcode 11y ago
Well... you know there's this thing called "proof-of-stake"... (I know, POS is much maligned, but once people see more currencies using it and succeeding I think public opinion will change)
oleganza 11y ago
Imagine you are sitting in the bunker and only get some bits of data from outside world. You cannot have any other trusted source of information about these bits except from the bits themselves. And there's a plenty of reasons for someone to actively try to deceive you ("active attackers" as in "hostile environment"). You have no idea how many people are out there and how much they are connected and who is connected to you. You are just sitting in this blinded box with a radio station. Your goal is to make sure that whatever bits you receive are exactly the same as everyone else is seeing. In other words, that it is practically impossible for an attacker to produce alternative bits satisfying your requirements and show them to someone else (and not showing to you). One way to make it is to make these bits fully predictable (like digits of Pi), but that's not useful. Another way is to implement a gigantic ever-growing proof-of-work that implements the condition of "practical impossibility". You receive some bits with such a big pile of PoW that you can be sure it's not possible for someone to quietly build an alternative bunch of bits with the same PoW and unleash it on you or anyone else. Protein folding and proof of stake do not help with this problem. You need abstract ever-growing scarcity implemented by converting energy into a short number. You might ask: why should we be so strict with the security requirement? Well, because history of civilization shows that people always try really hard to build hierarchies of power to manipulate property and human beings. Any system of global consensus outside of existing power structures will face huge amount of resistance and therefore must be designed from ground up to withstand it.
- VikingCoder 11y ago
  If you have no idea how many people are out there, then you don't have any idea how expensive it would be to produce a false "big" pile of PoW.

drcode 11y ago

Well... you know there's this thing called "proof-of-stake"... (I know, POS is much maligned, but once people see more currencies using it and succeeding I think public opinion will change)

oleganza 11y ago

Imagine you are sitting in the bunker and only get some bits of data from outside world. You cannot have any other trusted source of information about these bits except from the bits themselves. And there's a plenty of reasons for someone to actively try to deceive you ("active attackers" as in "hostile environment"). You have no idea how many people are out there and how much they are connected and who is connected to you. You are just sitting in this blinded box with a radio station. Your goal is to make sure that whatever bits you receive are exactly the same as everyone else is seeing. In other words, that it is practically impossible for an attacker to produce alternative bits satisfying your requirements and show them to someone else (and not showing to you). One way to make it is to make these bits fully predictable (like digits of Pi), but that's not useful. Another way is to implement a gigantic ever-growing proof-of-work that implements the condition of "practical impossibility". You receive some bits with such a big pile of PoW that you can be sure it's not possible for someone to quietly build an alternative bunch of bits with the same PoW and unleash it on you or anyone else. Protein folding and proof of stake do not help with this problem. You need abstract ever-growing scarcity implemented by converting energy into a short number. You might ask: why should we be so strict with the security requirement? Well, because history of civilization shows that people always try really hard to build hierarchies of power to manipulate property and human beings. Any system of global consensus outside of existing power structures will face huge amount of resistance and therefore must be designed from ground up to withstand it.

VikingCoder 11y ago
If you have no idea how many people are out there, then you don't have any idea how expensive it would be to produce a false "big" pile of PoW.