Crypto Academy Week 13 | Homework Post for Professor @alphafx : Consensus Algorithms
Hello to everyone, I want to start by saying thanks to professor @alphafx for delivering this wonderful lecture. This lecture has helped me so much to understand what Consensus Algorithm is and how it operates. The professor has asked us to write on a couple of consensus algorithms. I will be writing on Proof of Capacity. We will have to get to know what Proof of Capacity is. But before that I will like to explain what consensus mechanism algorithm is.
What is consensus mechanism algorithm?
This can be referred to as a strategy that a group of system or computer uses in the agreement of what’s true or not. There are many different kinds of consensus algorithm. These include Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS), Proof of Work (PoW), Proof of Stake (PoS).
What is Proof of Capacity?
Proof of Capacity (PoC) is much similar to Proof of work but just that Proof of Capacity leverages the disk space that is available. Proof of capacity is a consensus mechanism algorithm used in the blockchain platform that gives gadgets used in mining the power to make use of the free space that is present in their hard drive space to validate transactions that are being made. These devices used in mining can also be called nodes. This gives the chance to mining groups to centralize the entire network which makes it less unprotected to differentiated hardware.
How does Proof of capacity works?
Proof of Capacity makes use of a slow hash which is called Shabal. Hashes are required to be pre-computed and saved on a hard disk space for future use since they are much harder to calculate. This particular process is what we call plotting of hard drive. During the process of plotting, nodes generates nonces. More nounces can be stored when there is more hard drive space.
When mining, scoop numbers are calculated by nodes which also makes the scoop data calculates the time limit. This whole process is repeated over and over for all the nonces on the nodes available on the hard drive. This time limit is the amount of seconds that must end since the last block was created before you are giving the chance to create another block. The particular nodes that created the block receives the ‘block reward’.
Examples of coins that uses Proof of Capacity.
There are so many popular coins that makes use of the system. Although not all the popular coins uses PoC. Below are the examples of coins that uses PoC.
Storj; This operates like an Amazon s3 system that saves data using the blockchain platform and also uses the PoC in mining activities and also saving data.
Chia; This was brought by Bram Cohen and Ashwin Navin, the founders of BitTorrent in late 2018.
Burst; Burstcoin is the first coin that brought Proof of capacity into execution, that was in somewhere 2014. This makes the system more decentralized and also reduce the cost of costs of transactions.
Advantages of Proof of Capacity
With Proof of Capacity, any hard drive at all can be used even those that uses the android system.
Upgrading of hard drives that are used are not really necessary on the PoC platform.
Hard drives can be used for other storing purposes if along the line you change your mind.
Drives used in mining in the PoC platform can easily be cleared without any problems or difficulty.
Disadvantages of Proof of Capacity
There is a greater number of developers that aren’t familiar with how this system works hence making it difficult for them to work with.
Important data can be lost when drive crushes in the process of working.
Hard drives that are infected with viruses can interrupt the operation processes of PoC.
What is the difference between Proof of Capacity (PoC) and Proof of Burn (PoB)
There is a very low cost of mining in PoC as compared to cost of mining in PoB.
The mining rate in PoC is faster than the mining rate in PoB.
PoC encourages short term investment projects while long term investment projects are encouraged by PoB.
The risk involved in PoC is much lesser and bearable than PoB’s risk.
Conclusion
Out of all that has be said about Proof of Capacity, it is true that PoC is a reliable platform that uses less energy consumption as compared to other consensus mechanism algorithms like Proof of Work. It will not be surprising if PoC becomes more popular in the blockchain platform and many investors and developers adopting to it.
Thank you again @alphafx for the wonderful lecture!
Thanks for participating