Bergstake is different from classic coin-stake – it lasts forever and it’s not transferable.  The holder of BRO coupled with Bergstake will have the right to sign blocks in cryptocurrency blockchains.  Even if the new coins are transferred away, the Bergstake remains.  All Bergstake are recorded in the blockchain and owners maintain their private keys.

Proof-of-Bergstake is better understood as an alternative distributed consensus mechanism to the Bitcoin Proof-of-Work mining process. Bergstake solves known issues found in Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchains. Bergstake blockchains also have knowledge of alternative forks. This enables someone to present a “Proof-of-Double-Mining” which will destroy the Bergstake as well as its potential block reward. The threat of losing Bergstake and recent virgin coins is incentive to mine only the “real” blockchain. This core feature neutralizes the “nothing-at-stake” weakness found in PoS blockchains.

The algorithm that selects the next block-signer can be gamed in other PoS blockchains. The strategy is known as “stake-grinding” or “costless simulation”, and it entails a nefarious type of “mining” of block data intended just to generate a hash, which allows the signing of the next block. Since Bergstake is recognized in advance, a block-signer assignment algorithm that moderates grinding can be employed. A technique used frequently involves the use of the hash of two prior signers in order to select another signer; another technique entails the selection of N signers based on a pseudo-random number and a current signer.