EK, can you please clarify if this proposal is just for the validation of ElasticPL submissions / solutions. The blockchain would still be secured by POS, right?
Exactly, supernodes would be only responsible for work related stuff.
Sounds like this approach would make the system much more versatile and therefore marketable to a much wider client base. The risk around these supernodes needs to be assessed and mitigated. My thoughts on the initial issues raised by EK.
Problem 1: Malicious billionaire supernodes that do not care about money.- If such a problem presents itself some kind of a voting mechanism based on community trust could be implemented. Very unlikely to happen due to the proposed penalties for mis-behavior.
Problem 2: The danger of ending up with no supernodes at all. - The threshold of entry vs. reward could me manipulated to incentivize this function more.