RE: Some thoughts regarding a Proof of Research Blockchain by core developer TheCharlatan
Currently network is fairly secure and incentivizes research well - there is no need to push PoR if security would be compromised, but research for the solution might be continued.
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Concerns.
Currently ~6720 blocks are produced per week, what means only a maximum of ~6720 stakers can stake in average once a week (assuming equal stakes). Including pool members, already we have around ~6720 researchers.(*)
As we know there are no obvious limits in crypto sphere. Let's assume user base explodes (maybe a great BOINC discovery, maybe sudden CNN / BBC / etc coverage) and we have one million researchers. The only solutions to pay rewards daily is either pool membership or manual / automatic reward payments. Also, just the number of reward payments will clog up the blockchain.
While researching and testing solutions, we should ask:
- Will the blockchain accommodate one million active accounts / researchers?
- Will the blockchain process ten million transactions per day?
(*) Although currently I believe around ~3000 are staking, as pool members are not staking individually. Nevertheless, we already scratch the limits here.
TheCharlatan's Reply
Reply to Hotbit:
I agree, scaling a blockchain in its current form to millions of researchers is impossible without either strong centralization (such that much larger blocks can be processed), sidechains, or sharding. None of these are sufficiently researched (although Cardano is doing some really good work on the latter).
Lets say we have a system that pays out all researchers on a daily basis, while pure Proof of Stake is used to push the chain forward. Researchers get paid no matter what. It is very cheap to DoS attack such a scheme, daily payouts would flood the entire network, clogging up the network for regular transactions.
I'd argue that the current system can scale to millions of researchers and at the same time serve as an incentive for a healthier Proof of Stake setup. Pools can bundle and hold back their payout, and have little incentive to stake more often than a couple of times a day. This leaves a significant portion of stakers to still do solo staking and keep the network decentralized. Assuming a 25tx/s throughput and pools bundling and holding back their payout for up to a week, the system can easily scale to millions without signifitcantly clogging the network.
The number is even higher than that. As of the new year, we have over 10,000 miners, with about 3500 going at it solo.