Proof of stake
Proof of Stake (PoS for short) is a process that a blockchain network uses to reach a consensus about which participant is allowed to generate the next block. A weighted random selection is used, whereby the weights of the individual participants are determined based on the duration of participation and/or assets (the "stake"). In contrast to the Proof of Work used with Bitcoin, Proof of Stake does not require time- and energy-intensive mining and it is not possible to take over the network simply by owning computing power ("51% attack").