Re: I've come full circle, BTC is the only worthwhile cryptocurrency
After 4+ years in the space and countless hours of research, it is becoming increasingly apparent that BTC is the only worthwhile project. Also by the thread title, you can probably tell its not my first rodeo.
Some of my strongest reasoning is specified below, it is by no means comprehensive. While I may have typed the below with conviction, I am openminded to other views (my wallet compels me so) - please put forth your opposing views.
Some of my strongest reasoning is specified below, it is by no means comprehensive. While I may have typed the below with conviction, I am openminded to other views (my wallet compels me so) - please put forth your opposing views.
- PoW is the only true Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus mechanism. PoS is not BFT at this point in time and I do not see how it gets there. At the end of the day, under PoS and the many other consensus mechanisms, one needs to trust a third party to relay them the correct data and that is assuming that one can be certain that the delegated node holds the majority of the voting power this is not trustless and re-introduces third parties.
With PoW, I can verify the hashes and the longest chain is the correct one.
Correct is a subjective term,
what you can verify with PoW is which Chain is the longest chain with the highest hashrate.
Now prepared to be shocked,
With PoS, you can verify the longest chain with the most coins and highest difficulty.
Because all you are doing is comparing chains.
The longest chain in a PoW has the most 'work' commited to it. Changing a block in the past will require all subsequent blocks to be somehow remined at huge energy costs - the earlier the block, the higher the energy cost. This is simply not the case with POS as you are effectively told what the longest chain is.
By extension POW has much better immutability which is perhaps the most important feature of any decentralised ledger technology.
PoW uses hashrate, and you are correct in your assessment of it.
Here is what is wrong with your assessment of PoS.
In PoSv2 the Number of Coins Plus COINAGE burned determine the blocks.
Once Staked, the coins in that block are dormant and can not stake for a set period of time.
In PoW, the mining pools maintain ~ same % control the entire time ,
In PoS , the stakers control is variable % and fluctuates with time,
which means a entity that controlled 51% of the staking will lose 2% while staking and others will then be the higher %,
which means in PoS a lot higher number that 51% is needed to maintain dominance closer to 90% is needed.
This higher threshold for control means that PoS is more secure than PoW, energy use is irrelevant in security which is hard for people to comprehend, but look at it this way no matter how little or how much energy is used, mining pools % is all that matters in PoW.
In PoSv2 , coins held, coins age, dormant periods after staking all make a PoSv2 coin more secure than PoW with mining pools.
