Greetings fellow steemians,
Prof @alphafx has delivered his lecture this week on consensus algorithms where he has explained a lot of interesting facts today.
After going through his lecture and doing research I will be writing on the proof of capacity consensus algorithms for my homework post submission.
Introduction
Consensus algorithm is a system where all blockchain networks involved come together and decide on how to maintain the integrity of data on the blockchain.
There are several types of consensus algorithm each one having its specific role it plays.
Some of them are safer to use and some of them are more difficult to use.
The following are types consensus algorithm.
Proof of work(PoW), Proof of Capacity(PoC), Proof of stake(PoS), Proof of burn(PoB) and many more.
As I have said already I will be talking about the proof of capacity.
source
What is proof of capacity?
Proof of capacity(PoC) is a type of consensus algorithm.
In this type of consensus algorithm, miners use space on their hard disk devices to mine blocks and validate transactions.
It takes a very long time before miners are able to acquire coins through mining them.
The space on the miners device is preferred to the more common and expensive energy consuming method used in some other methods.
This type of method is somehow cheaper than some other methods like the PoS.
How does proof of capacity work?
In the PoC consensus algorithm, since miners use their own space to be able to mine coins and also validate transactions there are two ways of doing this.
The first one being plotting.
Before I go further I will explain the term plotting.
In plotting miners already have ways of getting their data which is known as plots.
These plots contains all the data needed to mine the rights.
After producing the plots on your drive, you also produce nonces.
After producing the nonces on your drive, you will continually hash the data.
While you are hashing the data you should also concentrate on your I'd until you have at least solved the nonce.
The second method being mining on your drive.
This type of mining is mostly done on the hard drive.
In this type of method, the miners are provided with a deadline.
The miners have to complete solving the nonces on the allocated deadline on the hard drive.
The miners are given this deadline based on when the previews the previous block was created.
After the new block is created, the miners who was able to create the block faster than the other miners is then handed the responsibility of creating the new block and the reward of the block is allocated to this miner.
Why was proof of capacity created?
Before a project is created it is either the old projects has problems or the new project is created to address and improve the problems that are on the only existing project.
The proof of capacity was created to address the problems that the proof of work(PoW) and proof of stake (PoS) has.
Energy consumption of the proof of capacity system is relatively low.
Because of the high energy consumptions that are involved in the proof of work and proof of stakes the proof of capacity turned out to be a better option.
We all know that in mining blocks there might arise some complications, the proof of capacity addresses this by keeping its list of possible solutions on the devices hard drive before the mining process begins.
Proof of capacity vs proof of work.
| features | PoC | PoW |
|---|---|---|
| Security and Efficiency | Lower | Higher |
| Energy Consumption involved | Very Low | Higher |
| Need to own mining hardware | No | Yes |
| Capital involved | Not expensive | Very expensive |
| How they operates | It uses spaces in hard drives to mine coins | it uses high computational power in solving of puzzles in order to validate transactions and get rewarded |
| Example | Burstcoin | Bitcoin |
Proof of capacity vs proof of stake.
| features | PoC | PoS |
|---|---|---|
| Security and efficiency | lower | Higher |
| Energy consumption involved | Very low | higher |
| Need to own mining hardware | No | Yes |
| Capital involved | very cheap | very expensive |
| How they operates | It uses spaces in hard drives to mine coins | It needs forgers before the miner can stake their coins by locking them up and may decide to withdraw all the coins and sell if they wants to leave the network |
Advantages and disadvantages of proof of capacity.
Advantages.
a) PoC can use any regular hard drives including android based.
b) You don't need to upgrade the hard drives regularly.
c) In PoC the drives used can be reused by erasing the data on the drive and reusing it again.
d) It is energy efficient because it uses less energy as compared to PoW and PoS.
e) using the hard drives makes it possible to be 30 times more energy efficient than ASIC mining.
f) since every miner uses his own hard drive this method can be referred to as a decentralized method where no one is controlled by a central authority.
Disadvantages.
a)Since it is not popular yet it is not used by many miners.
b)It can be easily attacked by computer malware.
c)PoC mining that is particularly popular could eventually cause an arms race.
d) It is new technology so it not tested properly to run in the real world.
Users of proof of capacity.
Burstcoin.
Burstcoin popularly known as BURST for short is a coin that looks to use the free space on a hard drive for mining.
This is the only coin that does that.
Currently because proof of capacity has not gained much popularity its is only used by burstcoin.
Since using the proof if capacity is very easy you can easily start mining burstcoin even in your android phone.
And it is energy efficient.
Burstcoin was introduced to the world in 2014 and it looked to replicate the work that the bitcoin does.
Just like the btc, the creator of burstcoin is not known.
But it is being developed by a team known as the Proof of capacity consortium.
The burstcoin is not only energy sufficient but when compared to btc, it uses 400 times less power.
The burstcoin can be purchased on bittrex,upbit or even poloniex.
The coin can be stored on online wallets.
Burstcoin is currently valued at 0.02068747 dollars and it has a market cap of 43,908, 892 dollars according to coin gecko.
conclusion
Even though the proof stake has not gained much popularity but with time it will.
Because it is supper efficient and it saves a lot of energy too.
But it also more efficient than the PoS and PoW.
pictures not cited are from coin gecko
Thank you.
Task satisfactorily done
Thanks for participating
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thanks prof i appreciate
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