System that regulates the formation of blocks on a blockchain
Proof of work (PoW) is a form of cryptographic proof in which one party (the prover) proves to others (the verifiers) that a certain amount of a specific computational effort has been expended.[1] Verifiers can subsequently confirm this expenditure with minimal effort on their part. The concept was invented by Moni Naor and Cynthia Dwork in 1993 as a way to deter denial-of-service attacks and other service abuses such as spam on a network by requiring some work from a service requester, usually meaning processing time by a computer. The term "proof of work" was first coined and formalized in a 1999 paper by Markus Jakobsson and Ari Juels.[2][3] The concept was adapted to digital tokens by Hal Finney in 2004 through the idea of "reusable proof of work" using the 160-bit secure hash algorithm 1 (SHA-1).[4][5]
Proof of work was later popularized by Bitcoin as a foundation for consensus in a permissionless decentralized network, in which miners compete to append blocks and mine new currency, each miner experiencing a success probability proportional to the computational effort expended. PoW and PoS (proof of stake) remain the two best known Sybil deterrence mechanisms. In the context of cryptocurrencies they are the most common mechanisms.[6]
A key feature of proof-of-work schemes is their asymmetry: the work – the computation – must be moderately hard (yet feasible) on the prover or requester side but easy to check for the verifier or service provider. This idea is also known as a CPU cost function, client puzzle, computational puzzle, or CPU pricing function. Another common feature is built-in incentive-structures that reward allocating computational capacity to the network with value in the form of cryptocurrency.[7][8]
The purpose of proof-of-work algorithms is not proving that certain work was carried out or that a computational puzzle was "solved", but deterring manipulation of data by establishing large energy and hardware-control requirements to be able to do so.[7] Proof-of-work systems have been criticized by environmentalists for their energy consumption.[9]
^Lachtar, Nada; Elkhail, Abdulrahman Abu; Bacha, Anys; Malik, Hafiz (2020-07-01). "A Cross-Stack Approach Towards Defending Against Cryptojacking". IEEE Computer Architecture Letters. 19 (2): 126–129. doi:10.1109/LCA.2020.3017457. ISSN 1556-6056. S2CID 222070383.
^Cite error: The named reference JaJue1999 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference DwoNao1992 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"RPOW - Reusable Proofs of Work". nakamotoinstitute.org. Retrieved 2024-01-17.
^"What Is Proof of Work (PoW) in Blockchain?". Investopedia. Retrieved 2024-01-17.
^"Cryptocurrencies and blockchain" (PDF). European Parliament. July 2018. Retrieved 29 October 2020. the two best-known – and in the context of cryptocurrencies also most commonly used
^ ab"Proof of Work Explained in Simple Terms - The Chain Bulletin". chainbulletin.com. Retrieved 2023-04-01.
^"The Only Crypto Story You Need, by Matt Levine". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2023-04-01.
^Kharif, Olga (November 30, 2021). "Analysis | Bye-Bye, Miners! How Ethereum's Big Change Will Work". The Washington Post. Bloomberg News. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
Proofofwork (PoW) is a form of cryptographic proof in which one party (the prover) proves to others (the verifiers) that a certain amount of a specific...
Proof-of-stake (PoS) protocols are a class of consensus mechanisms for blockchains that work by selecting validators in proportion to their quantity of...
a public ledger that records all Bitcoin transactions; mining and proofofwork, the process to create new bitcoins and verify transactions; and cryptographic...
instead of SHA-256. Peercoin, created in August 2012, used a hybrid ofproof-of-work and proof-of-stake. Cryptocurrency has undergone several periods of growth...
intensive process based on proofofwork, called mining, that requires increasing quantities of electricity and guarantees the security of the bitcoin blockchain...
been designed to be less energy intensive than the more widely used proofofwork, although there is disagreement about how secure and decentralized this...
September 2022, Ethereum transitioned its consensus mechanism from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) in an upgrade process known as "the Merge". This...
al.. Proofsof space are very similar to proofsofwork (PoW), except that instead of computation, storage is used to earn cryptocurrency. Proof-of-space...
Proofof authority (PoA) is an algorithm used with blockchains that delivers comparatively fast transactions through a consensus mechanism based on identity...
hypothesis if frequently used as an assumption for further mathematical work. Proofs employ logic expressed in mathematical symbols, along with natural language...
consensus are proof-of-work (POW) and proof-of-stake (POS). Proof-of-work utilises computational power to establish consensus through the process of mining....
alternative proof-of-work algorithm, is used for Litecoin. According to Motherboard, "Scrypt was chosen because it theoretically prevents the use of ASICs,...
much as possible like a random function (often called a random oracle in proofsof security) while still being deterministic and efficiently computable....
hybrid data structures. DLT consensus algorithm types include proof-of-work (PoW) and proof-of-stake (PoS) algorithms and DAG consensus-building and voting...
GoCoin. Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash both use a proof-of-work algorithm to timestamp every new block. The proofofwork algorithm used is the same in both cases...
Transactions are validated through a miner network running RandomX, a proof-of-work algorithm. The algorithm issues new coins to miners and was designed...
unless a majority of the parties agreed to accept new solutions, they couldn't start on the next problem. (see also: proof-of-work system). Although Szabo...
Crypto-Currency using Berkeley Open Infrastructure Network Computing Grid as a ProofOfWork" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 5, 2016. Retrieved...
Death Proof is a 2007 American action slasher film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Kurt Russell as a stuntman who murders young women...
than to verify it, shifting the burden ofwork onto one side of a transaction or system. For example, proofofwork, using hash functions, was considered...
Coin, PP Coin, or PPC, is a cryptocurrency utilizing both proof-of-stake and proof-of-work systems. Peercoin is based on an August 2012 paper that listed...