Re: PoS is far inferior to PoW - why are so many people advocating switching to PoS
Answering the question in the title: it's easy - no one wants to spend their money on mining equipment that is constantly getting cheaper.
Another reason is - few people already have A LOT of hashing power and they get an advantage compared to a regular folk. And regular folk is not happy with this fact at all
Another reason is - few people already have A LOT of hashing power and they get an advantage compared to a regular folk. And regular folk is not happy with this fact at all
It is a complex question, but the main thing is this.
In POS, wealth becomes more concentrated at the top over time and there is no way to break your way into the economy without the 'permission' of existing stakeholders.
In POW, although mining costs can and usually become prohibitive, there is always an entry into the economy.
... there is always an entry into the economy.
It doesn't really matter if you cannot enter at all or if you can enter and receive only a marginally low share (close to zero) at extremely high costs.
There's better options for both cases and in the long run both cases will be solved by the market.
Let's call it a draw.
In the orchestrated bank take-over scenario I outline up-thread, it makes a huge difference.
If Bitcoin is converted to PoS, the banks can take control by printing unlimited money. If Bitcoin remains PoW, they can still buy that vast majority of coins, but everybody will have a trump card. If the price gets too high, you can simply start mining instead of buying on the open market.
It may be that mining becomes so expensive that only nation-states can do it. That would still be an improvement over what we have now.
Edit: added link to the "The American Dream" animated short film about the history of Central Banks in the USA. They briefly mention Great Britain as well.
Bingo!
I'm glad there are still people who get the point!
If Bitcoin remains PoW, they can still buy that vast majority of coins, but everybody will have a trump card.
You know perfectly well, that the overwhelming majority of people will never mine any bitcoins and will never be able to compete with professional miners, just like majority of people don't compete with professional miners of natural resources. What matters for the majority of people is unique use cases. How the crypto currency came into existence doesn't matter for them if they have to buy it anyway, as long as it's a decentralized blockchain, distributed consensus and secure network - that's all that matters.
The overwhelming majority might never feel the need to mine, but knowing that they can if they want to without permission, makes all the difference between PoW and PoS.