Nowadays, to be successfull in PoW mining you have to be priviliged in several ways:
- have access to 'free' (usually means stolen) energy
- live in a country with low-taxed offshore deliveries or got ASIC manufacturer in your neighbourhood
- win in 'pre-order' gambling game
To get in PoS minting you just have to purchase BTC. Of course you have to deal with market swings, but nobody says that crypto-business is risk-free.
Early adopters of PoS cryptos had their chance to dump their coins when price went up for the first period of time, or patiently wait and risk. It's the same as dealing with any other algo new released currencies.
So IMO this is the point:
The only reason why someone prefers POW is that he bought expensive mining hardware and his ROI is dropping to nowhere.
Yeah suggesting everyone can get in on mining is crazy, just look at bitcoin mining anyone without those preconditions you just mentioned will lose money instead of earning money. It's definitely still the privileged few that can take part in PoW, the only difference being that the privileged few are a different group under PoW than under PoS.
For me the deal breaker is the fact that PoW will waste huge resources if the marketcap of bitcoin or any other PoW coin gets in the hundreds of billions, to the point where the majority of worldwide energy consumption would soon go towards mining.
edit: only just noticed it's an old resurrected thread, though the discussion of PoW vs PoS gets more relevant by the day due to the electricity usage done on PoW
This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. So you are comparing bitcoins ASIC driven network to Altcoins with memory intensive algorithms? Oh please. I prefer PoW because I know that the distribution method and security works. I know that I can work with that coin to generate a profit based on my efforts and investment. And the resources are the deal breaker? Oh please, you are sure it isn;t because you realized you could stake a coin and make money as an early adopter without any effort? Come on now...
Privileged few - what utter garbage. The cries of someone who wants something from nothing, which is exactly what PoS is. Can you explain why I turn a profit enough to sustain myself with GPUs and 0.28kWH electricity prices?
Edit: decentralization; you need individuals to work it. If there is no reward, why bother with the risk? Ideology alone won't fuel the network. Wake up to yourself.
Also to the guy who mentioned Ripple; poor example. Ripple is a bridge currency aimed at the baking sector. It provides liquidity to low liquidity pairs, with a faster and more efficient transfer system. Show me one PoS currency, that isn't a god damn Token, that is working. It has to start out as a PoS currency, and not derive itself off the backs of PoW miners giving the ledger intrinsic value ie. ETH.