Season 5 Beginner Course // Different types of Consensus Mechanisms// Steemit Crypto Academy S5 - Homework Post for Task 6 by @ oshimadu
Friends and professors of this great community of the Cryptoacademy, today I bring here the task the lecture of professor @sapwood for the introductory level.I will do my best to accomplish this task very successfully.
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Entire question
(1) What is the difference between PoW & PoS? Advantages & Disadvantages? Which one is better in scaling Capacity? Examples?
01 Difference between proof of work (POW) and proof of stake (POS)?
Blockchain is a decentralized system, which means that there is no center or authorities. A strong and secure decentralized system must have some way of testing the data. And instead of holding a central authority accountable for it, blockchain creates an agreement between all of its users. This agreement define the achieved with consensus mechanisms. Proof of Work and Proof of Stake are examples of consensus mechanisms that operate on different principles.pow requires a lot of wealth and labor but pos does not require as much energy i.e. it is based on digital currency. It is easy to work with and there are no intermediaries.Both mechanisms are a necessary requirement to confirm transactions within a blockchain, thus avoiding intermediaries..jpeg)
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PROOF OF WORK was the first consensus algorithm that emerged with the arrival of Bitcoin (BTC) in 2008. This algorithm consists of confirming the blocks produced by the network, those in charge of this are the miners, who compete with each other, are dedicated to Solve complex mathematical operations to confirm the blocks and thus achieve a reward, since the first to confirm a block receives a reward. This process is also done to add cryptocurrencies to the network.
The POW is based on the advance mathematical formulas called “cryptography”. Cryptography is using the mathematical equations so difficult that only the most powerful computers can solve them. By solving these complex mathematical equations, the network knows that the transaction is authentic.The Proof of Work or Proof of Work is used to eliminate intermediaries, replacing them with the community itself, which must approve each transaction through its consensus. Which eliminates the possibility of malicious transactions by requiring the approval of the total set of miners to form the new block within the blockchain.
- Proof Of Stake (pos)
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Proof of Stake, this consensus algorithm instead of using the power of mining machines, uses the coins of users in cold wallets to verify transactions, it is a distributed consensus agreement within a distributed cryptocurrency network. This agreement seeks to give greater reliability to the transections carried out in a cryptocurrency network.
Its operation is based on the number of cryptocurrency units that the participating interchanges have in the network. This protocol works thanks to the validator interchanges, these interchanges are chosen randomly according to who has the most probabilities. Odds are decided based on who best meets a number of criteria. Among them are the amount of reserved coins or the time of participation in the network. That is, the interchanges that perform the mining work in PoS are the richest interchanges. To maintain overall participation in the network, those interchanges that have less money can also be selected, but with a lower probability in the selection process.
02 - Let us now look at the differences between POW and POS
| Proof of Work(PoW) | proof of stake (pos) |
|---|---|
| The pow system depends on the speed of the hardware and the miners and its accuracy and quality. | This means that pos directly affects the owner's shareholding. |
| It takes a large investment to buy the right equipment to mine, and it takes a long time to make the investment profitable. | The owner who lent his funds to the network can immediately transfer, sell or buy his collateral. |
| They are mathematical algorithms that can only be solved through powerful machines called miners. | The calculations are not as difficult as in the proof of work algorithm. |
| Miners who solve mathematical puzzles receive block prizes | In the pos system, shareholders receive a network fee as a benefit. |
| The energy requirement you need to solve the PoW algorithm is very high. | It is a more efficient solution in terms of power consumption because it does not require much computer capacity to operate. |
| In a PoW algorithm, miners with greater capital and investment time are favored, that is, in the long term, the mining power will be centralized. | Participants have the same incentive regardless of their investment |
| Decentralization is a problem that strongly affects PoW networks today. The network is managed by only a few. | The various activities of the network have been diversified and the network has been democratized. |
03 - Next we will look at the disadvantages and advantages between pow and pos
- Proof Of Work (POW)
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| Provides a robust mechanism to achieve consensus and prevent abuse and misuse | Mining requires highly specialized computer hardware to run the complicated algorithms. |
| It is a way to add cryptocurrencies to the network. The operation of this algorithm is mainly based on the work of miners to find a randomly generated cryptographic variation, at a difficulty that varies according to the amount of work applied in order to maintain the regulated coin issuance rate. | In the PoW algorithm, miners with greater capital and investment time are favored, that is, in the long term the mining power will be centralized. |
| It certifies the validity of the transactions in a public way, through a consensus among the users themselves. Which means that the work they do from this algorithm is completely honest. | Power consumption is a big disadvantage in proof of work since they need more and more power to win the competition against other computers and get to get a reward. This excessive power consumption to solve calculations cannot be used in other businesses, sciences or any other field. |
| Hashes are the method used in the Proof of Work to detect the possible manipulations that occur in the blockchain. | Finding a hash number is difficult and highly expensive so the PoW algorithm requires a miner to use great computing power to encode the block data and find the solution. |
- Proof Of Stake (POS)
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| The main advantage is related to the environment, since large amounts of electrical energy will not be necessary as in PoW to ensure the operation of the Blockchain. | In PoS, all that is needed to access the network are cryptocurrencies, therefore any government or entity could take control, especially in cryptocurrencies that do not have many users. |
| Very advanced computer equipment is not required to obtain it, since by having the cryptocurrencies demanded by the network preserved , you could be rewarded by the network | You cannot trade preserved cryptocurrencies , which means that you must save all the currencies in order to get more profit. |
| This model prevents groups of people from joining forces to dominate the network just for profit. Instead, those who contribute to the network by preservation their coins are rewarded in proportion to the amount they have invested | It allows people to verify transactions on multiple chains, something that Proof of Work does not do. The reason this could be a problem is that it could allow a hacker to perform a double-spend attack. |
| In this algorithm, the owner who lent his funds to the network can instantly transfer, sell or buy his collateral, which would be the funds previously loaned to the network to validate transactions. | Keeping coins offline is counterproductive to network security, theft of funds may be more common than in PoW cryptocurrencies. |
| Verifications are done quickly, positively impacting the scalability and speed of the network. | For users who trust third-party services, the trust factor is always relevant. It's no secret that when it comes to trusting strangers on the internet, the risk is always much higher than with freelance work. |
04 - Which one is better for scaling capacity?
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The Scalability is term commonly used in the Blockchain in the world . It refers to the capacity of a computer process to be used or produced in a variety of capacities, that is, it refers to the capacity of the network to sustain a greater number of occurrences.
In Proof of Stake (PoS), less computational resources are required to perform the necessary tests on the information blocks, which makes it more sustainable and environmentally friendly. A PoS network can process tens of thousands of transactions per second, compared to ten transactions per second for a PoW network. Scalability is what leads many projects to implement this technology.
The following example illustrates this further.
- DASH
- NEO
- TEZOS
- Etherum
• The main cryptocurrencies that decided to use Proof of Work are: Bitcoin (BTC), LTC.
Conclusion
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Thus it seems that a good understanding of cryptocurrency handling should be obtained first with a thorough study.The growing interest in cryptocurrencies in the world of electronic finance entails a high degree of analysis and evaluation of the technologies used to carry out the immense volume of transactions in cryptocurrencies, so it is very important to know how these technologies work. , in order to make decisions when making investments.
Thanks .