Guys, in a special way I welcome you all to the third week of the engagement challenge. This week we are asked to write on the topic Blockchain through the concepts. Here we are required to select just one of the concept associated with blockchain and then we are asked to explain our understand about the term choosen.

There are many term associated with blockchain. It is important to state here that this word was first seen in action in the year 2009 when bitcoin came into existence and since then till this moment a lot of improvement has been made and there by leading to lots of new terminologies. Today I will be discussing one of my favourite term that is normally used in the blockchain technology.

Blockchain uses consensus mechanism to ensure that the blocks produce maintain certain level of integrity. When ever we want to validate a block we use one of these consensus mechanism that is associated to the blockchain under review. This means that there are a lot of this consensus mechanism but for the sake of this contest, I will be discussing proof-of-stake mechanism.

Some blockchain uses the Proof-of-stake consensus mechanism to validate the blocks in a given blockchain. To validate this block means to check and ensure that the block meets the requirement needed before it can be added to the list of transaction and then executed.

In the Proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, block validators are selected based on the amount of asset that an individual is able to stake in the blockchain under review. This means that validators are solely selected based on the token staked. Those with larger amount of token stake has more chances of becoming validators and those with little amount of token staked do not have any chance of becoming a node or validator.

If the number of persons who have higher stake are present in the blockchain, the system check to see those whose stake on the blockchain is older and these persons are then taken into consideration and a random selection of the validator is done by the system. The highest staker and the oldest is taken into consideration because of trust and also the asset stake functions as a collateral to the validator as well.

The Proof-of-stake as we can see is very simple and straight forward the only issues is that power is left in the hands of the highest stakers. Other than that, the Proof-of-stake has proven to be more easier and simpler than the Proof-of-work consensus algorithm as it does not required large and sophisticated hardware to perform it's operations.

Validators of block get reward from the interest of all the transaction that they are able to validate. For this single reason, most users always want to be part of validators of the blocks. In the case of Proof-of-stake, this reward are given to the validators that are selected based on the amount of token they have stake whereas in Proof-of-work it is the person who validates the block first that earns the reward.

Proof-of-stake is very important in the blockchain because it is with it help that the integrity of the blockchain is maintained. Without the Proof-of-stake, a lot of manipulations will be done in places of transactions. But with this the transaction has to be verified and confirmed before it can be added to the block of list of transaction. The verification done by the validator who are selected based on the amount of token stake makes the platform transparent and reliable and secured as well.

Another reason why the proof-of-stake is important in the block chain is because it does not allow for monopoly of the entire asset. This means a particular individual can not have up to 51% share of the entire token. If such share is own by a person then the entire decision will be taken by him. So for the blockchain to maintain its integrity it won't allow people to have up till this share.

Another reason is that validaators of the blockchain are usually very careful and they tend to always do the proper thing because their asset which is staked is at risk if any form of manipulation is noticed. This helps to keep the integrity, tranparency and scalability of the transaction.

The blockchain can definitely exist without the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism but the only issues is that there will be doubt of the blocks that are verified. Before the coming of the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, we have other consensus mechanism such as the proof-of-work and others. The way this once function differs but they can also be used in place of the proof-of-stake.

I still believe that even with the absent of the consensus mechanism, the blockchain will still exist, but the verification and validation of transaction will take a different shape entirely and it may not be trusted. A lot of manipulation maybe seen in the validation of the blocks as well.

The alternative or similar term that is associated to the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism are proof-of-work, proof-of-capacity, proof-of-burn etc. This once have different way of performing same function the the proof-of-stake performs. So in the absent of the proof-of-stake, any of the above listed consensus algorithm can be used as well.

Different consensus algorithm are used by different blockchain. The reasons why different blockchain tends to use different consensus mechanism is because a few lapses might have been spotted on the previous. In the case of the proof-of-stake consensus algorithm, there are some lapses where only those with higher amount of staked token are taken into consideration to becoming validators. This kept power in the hand of only the whales in the blockchain. This was not too good for those who are little investors or lower stakes.

Another form of consensus algorithm that is seen to be an improvement of the proof-of-stake is the delegated proof-of-stake. In this type of consensus algorithm, the persons with lower stake in the platform can combine with others to select the persons who will be the next validator of the block. In that way power is not vested in the hands on the whales in the blockchain. It means that any one can be selected by the other nodes to represent them as a validator. This is more like a system of democracy where everyone has a saying.

The proof-of-stake is a type of consensus algorithm in which validators are selected based on the quantity and the age of the asset they have been able to stake in the blockchain. It's improvement is seen in the delegated proof-of-stake where selection of validators are not based on the quantity of asset that the node has but based on an agreed selection by all the stake holders of the blockchain.