Consensus Mechanisms in Blockchain (Pob vs Pos)!
Although both POW and POS are consensus protocols (mechanisms designed to ensure that the nodes reach an agreement when validating a new block) it should be noted that not all Blockchains use the same protocols, nowadays could be said that the most famous and Used are the Proof of Work (Pow) and the Proof of Stake (Pos).
In Pow, "Proof of Work" a work test, it is required as it indicates its name, that a specific job is carried out ... But what is that work?
Normally, the solution of complicated mathematical problems is required, either solve algorithms, calculations or simply high-level problems, for example for the Bitcoin, it is necessary to achieve tolerance to Byzantine faults which is a high-level computer problem consisting of the Creation of mechanisms to avoid a catastrophic failure in a system, with the obstacle that malicious factors may exist in the system. To achieve tolerance it is necessary that the mechanisms created guarantee that these actors can not lead to the system to fail.
This is something so complicated that it requires large amounts of energy today employed in powerful computer equipment that manage to give the answer to this problem and finally reach the consensus that results in the generation of the new blocks, of course all this was achieved for the first Turn thanks to the algorithm created by Satoshi Nakamoto, which gradually took the Blockchain to be what it is today.
In POS, "PROOF OF STAKE" which can be translated more or less as "participation test" is required that users are required to have cryptocurrencies in a wallet to generate new blocks, basically when such cryptocurrencies are being verified the participation of said user on the network. All this in order to ensure that the network, only using "participation" as a means to reach consensus. This system rewards such participation, as well as a user has a user, plus possibility of mining a new block in the Blockchain and receiving cryptocurrencies as a reward.
All this was born in order to solve various problems that exist in the Pow, such as some safety problems, scalability and of course the strong impact that POW has in the environment and that in POS there is no, because in this Consensus Protocol NO The use of powerful computer equipment is required.
Then we would find that the main difference between Pow and POS is in the way the new blocks are mine or validated, while in Pow you need to resolve complex mathematical problems using highly powerful hardware to resolve these problems and reach consensus to validate the blocks.
In pos this becomes simpler and ecological, the validation of transactions and therefore of blocks in pos is achieved by only possessing the cryptocurrency on the network and that this is demonstrated.
According to the consensus protocols of each at the post it becomes easier to achieve scalability, this is because the most common and simple way to get a system scalable is to make the different databases never dependent between Yes to make a transaction, this in the Pow is not normally viable, because if we did something like that, placing different transaction models it would be that some would be easier to violate than others since they would not always depend on the same power but from different sources supported By the mining teams and therefore it becomes much more complicated.
At the POS, since its security is not linked to the Consensus Protocol when it comes to validating the Block as it happens in the POW but in the asset shelter in a wallet, it is possible to apply models that facilitate different transactions in various bases of Data, making it possible to scale the network easier.
To compare…
We have as examples of Pow to Bitcoin, a system that escapes from processing only 7 transactions per second, so today making a transaction in the Bitcoin network takes about 10 minutes to be validated.
We also have as an example of Pow to Ethereum that it is one of the fastest systems in terms of POW and yet it does not exceed the amount of 30 transactions per second.
A Blockchain that uses the POS protocol and is super scalable is the cosmos network, which manages that the transactions of their "ATOM" token are practically instantaneous.
We have that both the POW and the POS are consensus protocols with which the validation of the blocks that make up the Blockchain are achieved. In this way, the transactions made in the network are also validated and to ensure that all this is always in operation is incentive to the entities that maintain such protocols, each with their pros and cons, equal have been shown in time As a couple of systems of which we can expect a lot, and I am sure that in the future we will continue to see them work.
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