[bitcoin-dev] BIP proposal: Inhibiting a covert attack on the Bitcoin POW function

Peter Todd pete at petertodd.org
Thu Apr 6 03:23:37 UTC 2017

On Wed, Apr 05, 2017 at 11:11:53PM -0400, Erik Aronesty wrote:
> If the primary purpose of pow is to destroy value, then a masked proof of
> burn to an expanded address that assigns the private key holder the right

You're talking about proof-of-stake here.

At best it's very difficult for such a "proof-of-burn" to _actually_ be a
proof, as the burn only happens if the consensus mechanism ultimately includes
that burn. Contrast that to proof-of-work's incredibly simple proof: you _know_
energy was destroyed to find a PoW solution, regardless of what consensus is
ultimately reached.

It's the difference between a computer secured from hackers with an anti-virus
scanner, and a computer secured by the fact that it's not connected to the
internet at all.

https://petertodd.org 'peter'[:-1]@petertodd.org
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