Crypto Academy Week 13 - Homework Post for @alphafx
Dear Steemians,
I am glad to be part of this week's lesson. Thanks to Professor @alphafx for giving us this excellent lecture on Consensus Algorithms.
After going through the notes and researching this week's topic, I have decided to review what I have learned in my homework task.
Write on any of these consensus algorithms extensively.
- Stellar Consensus Protocol
- Proof of Capacity
- Proof of Burn
- Proof of Elapsed Time
In this homework task, I will be talking about what Proof of Burn is all about in the Blockchain Ecosystem, but before I that, let's have a recap of what a consensus algorithm is?
A consensus algorithm is a process used by peers to reach an agreement on a single data value among the present state of the distributed ledger. Consensus algorithms' main focus is to achieve reliability in the Blockchain ecosystem and ensure trust among different people in a distributed computing environment. The consensus algorithm uses the consensus protocol to ensure the validation of every new block that is added to the Blockchain network, this new blocks should be the only version of uniqueness that is agreed upon by all the nodes in the Blockchain network.
Every good Consensus algorithm should exhibit the following properties,
The mechanism should ensure that results generated by the nodes are validated according to the rules f the consensus protocol.
The mechanism should be inclusive, this is to ensure the participation of all nodes in the voting process on the network.
The mechanism should give equal weight and value to every vote from the node.
A poor blockchain consensus method exposes the chain to all kinds of vulnerability. The common problem with this when a single chain diverges into 2 or more chains. This vulnerability is known as Blockchain Forks.
Poor performance of the chain. There is a delay in the exchanging information between nodes, this decreases the performance of the process. This vulnerability normally occurs when there is a faulty node or when the node suffers a network partition.
Bad consensus protocol leads to the failure of some of the nodes to take part in any process. This happens when votes are absent and hence fail to produce accurate and desired outcomes.
Proof of Capacity which is also known as Proof of Space is an extremely intriguing consensus algorithm that uses hard drives and storage to validate transactions on the network. Proof of Capacity is much cheaper and easier in block verification. This makes it a more efficient and viable way for block verification on the network.
In the PoC, peers invest heavily in hard drive space rather than burning coins or investing inexpensive hardware. The hard drive space determines how a validator is selected to mine blocks. Those with high hard drive space have a better chance of getting selected for mining blocks to earn block rewards.
Some of the live implementations of Proof of Capacity are Burst Coin, BTCHD, BXTB, etc.
In Burst coin’s implementation, miners use two steps to constantly use the SHA256 algorithm to change the block header and hash in other to validate a block(PoW). These steps are.
Plotting is when miners use their hard drive with the Shabal cryptographic algorithm to create a random solution, known as a plot. The solution created is then stored on the hard drive. Plots produce 8,192 hashes called nonce which is in pairs known as scoops
Mining is when a miner solves various puzzles on the block to reach a solution, the first miner gets the chance to mine the next block. The result from scoops is computed using numbers between 0 and 4,095. After which a deadline is calculated from the combined result of scoop and nonce. The value of the Deadline is used to determine the amount of time between the last block and the time to produce a new block.
When it comes to security in Proof of Capacity, the PoC system uses the abundance of the hard drive in the market to avoid any form of threat.
When it comes to Proof of Work, miners require a high amount of consumption power and a considerable amount of time to find a solution to a puzzle in a block in other to be rewarded of the token mined but in Proof of Capacity, the hard drive space of the miner is a major factor which is required. The larger the drive space the greater chance of the miner finding the solution to a particular block. The solution is stored on the hard drive and used to advance to the next block. The miner is rewarded with the mined token.
In Proof of Stake, miners are known as validators. miners stake some of their assets in the network, the validator then uses the asset to bet on the blocks which will be added next to the chain. If they are right, the validators get their tokens based on the proportion of the asset staked. But in Proof of Capacity, the space of the hard drive is the major factor that is required. The hard drive space determines the chance of a miner has to solve the puzzle. The bigger the drive capacity the higher chance of the miner finding the solution to a particular puzzle. The solution is stored on the hard drive and used to mine the next block. The miner is rewarded with the mined token.
Advantages of Proof of Capacity
Proof of Capacity does not require any special hard drive for its operation. Any regular hard drives or Android-based systems can be used in PoC
PoC is more energy-efficient than those using the ASIC-based mining of BTC. This is estimated to be 30 times more efficient than ASIC-based mining algorithms.
No special hard is required. Miners do not have to worry about using dedicated hardware and they do not need to worry about constant upgrading of their hardware.
The same drive can be used for a different purpose. The mining data can be formatted and reused for any other purpose.
Disadvantages of Proof of Capacity
The could be potential competition for high-capacity hard drives if the PoC becomes popular. As of now, people have started using terabyte hard drives for mining, this is when different drive capacities such as petabytes, exabytes, and zettabytes will be produced.
Because PoC is new and not generally accepted the hard drives plot data becomes useless beyond the mining purpose.
There is a potential malware plotting miner's hard drives. The easiest way to determine the malware is that some of the space of the hard drive has been used up.
Conclusion
Even though the proof-of-capacity concept has not been fully explored, but it is a big step forward to solve the proof-of-work consensus algorithms problems of using a lot of time and high consumption power.
I thank professor @alphafx for this lectures and reviewing my work
Thank you for reading my homework post
Thanks for participating