Consensus Mechanisms: Proof-of-Stake Explained
The Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus protocol is a blockchain technology that allows for higher transaction scalability and security levels. Unlike the traditional Proof-of-Work (PoW) system, PoS systems require miners to put up a portion of their coins as collateral to validate transactions on the network.
How does PoS work?
By utilizing the power of incentives, PoS systems provide a secure and efficient way of verifying transactions on the blockchain. As a result, miners are incentivized to act honestly to protect their coins. This is because if miners attempt to commit fraud or double-spend, their collateral can be confiscated by other miners, preventing malicious behavior.
The most popular cryptocurrencies that use the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm are Ethereum, Tezos, Dash, and Cosmos.
In a PoS system, miners stake their coins as collateral and then use an algorithm to select them as verifiers or “validators randomly.” These validators are responsible for creating consensus on the blockchain by verifying each new batch of transactions before they are added to the public ledger. They also receive rewards when they successfully validate blocks and can incur penalties if they fail to do so.
Using incentives ensures that malicious actors suffer financially by having their staked tokens seized while honest participants enjoy revenue in return for providing services to the network. This process is known as “forging”, where selected validators place cryptographic signatures (“forges”) onto newly generated batches of transactions to create consensus on how much funds each validator owns at any given time, preventing fraud from occurring within the system. Additionally, once a chosen group of validators have created consensus around a set number of transactions (e.g., 500), the next block will be produced following a predefined protocol depending upon which particular version is being used – one example being Delegated-Proof-of-Stake (DPoS).
By using such protocols, transaction finality can potentially occur faster than traditional PoW systems since there isn’t necessarily competition between multiple users attempting to solve complicated mathematical equations in hopes of receiving some sort of reward. Instead, various stakeholders are incentivized through token issuance and fees collected from processed transactions.
The PoS consensus protocol also serves to protect the blockchain from various attacks. Traditional PoW systems are vulnerable to multiple attack vectors, such as 51% attacks because a malicious actor can use more powerful computers to overpower the other participants on a network and gain majority control of it (i.e., “51%” of the network’s hashing power).
However, due to its reliance on token staking, this attack is much harder to pull off in Proof-of-Stake protocols since an adversary would need 51% ownership over all coins, which is highly unlikely. Furthermore, PoS systems have built-in incentive structures that discourage validators from compromising their commitment towards security rather than profiting through dishonest behavior, thus strengthening the overall integrity of these distributed networks even further.
History
Proof-of-Stake was first proposed in 2011 by a pseudonymous member of the Bitcointalk forum, User: QuantumMechanic. The concept was to create a more secure and energy-efficient consensus mechanism than Proof-of-Work.
Initially, this idea fell out of favor due to several issues, such as potential centralization from more significant stakeholders having a vote advantage and limiting scalability compared with other consensus models.
The Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism was originally formally proposed by two computer scientists, Sunny King, and Scott Nadal, in 2012 as an alternative to Proof-of-Work.
Sunny King and Scott Nadal are the leading creators of Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithms. They both proposed different versions of PoS, although King’s version has become more popular as it is used in cryptocurrencies like Peercoin and Ethereum.
Sunny King and Scott Nadal’s contribution to blockchain technology was instrumental in paving the way for energy-efficient blockchains powered by PoS, allowing them to scale better than PoW.
Sunny King and Scott Nadal are computer scientists from the U.S. who are passionate about blockchain technology. Sunny King is credited as the creator of Peercoin, one of the first cryptocurrencies to use a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism. He is also known for his work on Primecoin, another early cryptocurrency with an innovative Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm. Scott Nadal created BlackCoin, another PoS cryptocurrency notable for being one of the earliest projects to use a delegated voting system to increase the decentralization and scalability of its network. King and Nadal continue to be active in the crypto space today and have contributed substantially to innovation within blockchain technology.
Variations
There are variations of PoS. There are two main variants of PoS: delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) and individual Proof-of-Stake (IPoS).
In DPoS, stakeholders vote for delegates responsible for validating transactions, whereas in IPoS, individual validators commit their tokens to validate blocks. Other variations of PoS include Parallel Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT), Casper, Tendermint, and Ouroboros.
DPoS
Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) is a variant of the PoS consensus mechanism in which stakeholders vote for delegates responsible for validating transactions. The selection of representatives is based on their reputation and the number of tokens they possess. The delegates are rewarded for their service, but their reward is shared among all stakeholders. This consensus system is designed to ensure that only highly reputable, and well-funded nodes are chosen as validators. Additionally, DPoS can process thousands of transactions per second, making it much more efficient than other consensus mechanisms.
IPoS
Individual Proof-of-Stake (IPoS) is a variant of the PoS consensus mechanism in which individual validators commit their tokens to validate blocks. This is done to ensure that only validators with a stake in the network are responsible for approving transactions. IPoS is designed to be more secure than other consensus mechanisms, as it eliminates the risk of Sybil attacks by requiring large amounts of resources to attack the network successfully. Additionally, IPoS is more energy efficient than PoW, as it does not need miners to dedicate processing power to validate transactions.
Parallel Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT)
Parallel Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) is a consensus protocol that allows for the secure, reliable, and fast execution of transactions. It works by having a master, or primary node, process all requests from the other nodes in the network. This primary node then broadcasts the results of these requests to all other nodes, who then validate the results of the primary node and reach a consensus on the results.
PBFT is designed to be more efficient than other consensus algorithms because it reduces the number of communication rounds needed for consensus and can process thousands of transactions per second. Additionally, PBFT is more secure than other algorithms since it does not rely on miners to ensure the network’s security.
Casper
Unlike regular PoS protocols, which rely on validators to commit their tokens as a stake, Casper requires validators to verify and validate the data in return for rewards. In this way, it incentivizes validators to act honestly and maintain network integrity.
Casper also has built-in checkpoints that enable it to detect malicious activities and prevent them from impacting the network. Additionally, Casper is designed to be more energy efficient than other consensus protocols since it does not require miners to dedicate computing power to solve mathematical puzzles to validate transactions.
Tendermint
Tendermint is an open-source consensus protocol based on the Proof-of-Stake algorithm. It works by having “validators” or nodes in the network who commit tokens as a stake and then validate blocks of transactions. The validators are then given rewards for their efforts. Tendermint also uses validator replicas, which enable faster transaction processing and more scalability than traditional PoS algorithms.
Additionally, Tendermint is more secure since it prevents malicious actors from attacking the network by requiring them to own many tokens to propose blocks.
Ouroboros
Ouroboros is designed to ensure network security and scalability. Unlike other PoS protocols, it uses a random selection process called “slotting” to assign validators that will commit their tokens as a stake and validate blocks of transactions.
This provides network security since all validators are incentivized to act honestly since they can be randomly selected at any time. Additionally, Ouroboros uses a threshold signature scheme to enable faster transaction processing, thus making it more scalable than other consensus algorithms.
Scaling solutions
Scaling solutions for PoS networks include sharding, off-chain scaling, layer two solutions such as Plasma, and sidechains.
Off-chain scaling
Off-chain scaling is a method of increasing transaction throughput for blockchain networks using Proof-of-Stake algorithms. The idea is to move transactions off the leading blockchain network, thus decreasing the computational power needed to process them.
This can be done through unique channels, such as payment channels or state channels, which allow users to transact with one another without having their transactions enter the main chain. Off-chain scaling also provides increased privacy since all transactions do not have to be broadcasted publicly and can remain private between participants in a channel.
Layer 2 solutions
Layer 2 solutions are scaling techniques that allow blockchain networks to process a more significant number of transactions without sacrificing security or decentralization.
These methods involve moving some of the computation off-chain while ensuring that all network participants can audit and verify results. Examples of Layer 2 solutions include Plasma and Raiden Network.
Plasma is designed to handle large volumes of transfers while maintaining the overall security and decentralization of the underlying PoS network through smart contract technology. Raiden Network is an Ethereum-based system similar to LightningNetwork which allows for secure high throughput payments between two parties on its scaling layer outside Ethereum’s main chain.
Sidechains
Sidechains are essentially separate blockchains that exist alongside the main blockchain and can be used to increase throughput on larger networks. They communicate with the main chain using a two-way peg which allows assets to be securely transferred between them in order to take advantage of their increased scalability.
This process also requires less energy consumption as most of the computation is done outside the main chain, thus lowering costs for miners. Sidechains offer improved privacy and flexibility compared to other scaling solutions because they enable developers to experiment with different technologies without affecting the parent chain.
Sharding
Sharding is a scaling solution for blockchain networks that utilize Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithms. In sharding, the network is broken into “shards,” and each shard contains its own set of validators responsible for verifying transactions within their respective shard.
This allows for increased scalability as the network does not have to process every transaction across all shards simultaneously, instead processing them one shard at a time in parallel. This also reduces costs by decreasing the amount of data that needs to be stored on each node in order to remain operational. Additionally, it can improve security by increasing redundancy – so if one shard were to become compromised, then the other shards would still be able to operate independently.
There are several sharding implementations in PoS networks, including Ethereum’s recent implementation of Beacon Chain and Cosmos’ Tendermint. Ethereum’s beacon chain is a sharded version of its existing Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm, allowing for scalability while retaining the same level of security. Similarly, Cosmos’ Tendermint platform uses a modified version of the Casper protocol to implement their sharding solution. Both projects are still in development but have made strides in scaling up the processing capacity for blockchain networks using PoS algorithms.
