The first time I heard of this two mechanism I thought they stands for the word the way I pronounced it, something like proof (evidenced of work). It funny right but that exactly what I think about the two mechanism, but never know they play a crucial role in blockchain technology.
Both PoW and PoS are used to secure transaction on blockchain network, in fact they have different uses and that is why certain blockchains prefer one mechanism over other to work effectively.
Proof-of-Work is a consensus mechanism that was first heard when first decentralized cryptocurrencies Bitcoin that drive other cryptocurrencies was introduced. The PoW mechanism system request individual known as miners to compete some complex mathematical problem or puzzles, the puzzles demand and consume a significant amount of computational power and energy. The success of first miner comes when it provide solution to that puzzle and broadcast it to the network which the solution will then verified by other participate to ensure its accuracy before rewards the miner with newly minted cryptocurrency.
Many prefer PoW for its security and decentralized nature that can not be tampered, although it also has a drawback of the power required for operations which caused an effect to the society. Because of mining energy consumption Canada stop mining of crypto within the country last year, but with all these challenges, PoW is still consider a reliable consensus mechanism that offered more security and decentralized solutions.
Why some blockchain prefer PoW over PoS
In terms of security, many consider Proof-of-work over Proof-of-stake due to the fact that is highly secure on the system of solving puzzles which seem difficult for hackers or malicious attack to tamper it in the blockchain being used. It also preferable because of its decentralized nature that gives anyone with sufficient computational resources to be part of it consensus process.
When talking about Proof-of-Stake i think is the most use mechanism by web3 blockchains, it's an alternative consensus mechanism of PoW energy consumption. Proof-of-stake is what brings in the features of staking in crypto community. Staking is part of crypto ecosystem and there is no how we can get it out of this circle. PoS works on the concept of "staking" or "locking up" a cryptocurrency for a certain period of time as collateral to create a new blocks, it also used to validate transaction on the blocks. Validators now responsible for each everyone stakes, the number of coins stake and durability of the stake.
I don't know if you have idea of who is validators, because they play a very important role in maintaining the security and performance of the blockchain network in PoS and that is why web3 blockchain prefer using proof of stake to provide the economic incentives of their blockchain activities under someone who have put its stake for risk.
The primary work of Validator is dividend into different segments, they select, create a new block and validate transaction according to coins staked. They locked certain number of their coins as a collateral to protect the network and because they use their stake as collateral they act honestly and dont behave maliciously on any transaction because their stake is at risk too.
Honestly I read lot just because I want to understand little about those creating of blocks I normally see HIVE witness create before I could understand it's proof-of-stake censuses mechanism and they are validators putting their stake at risk to prevent the transaction on hive blockchain.
It quite good to know why hive blockchain choose PoS over PoW. Proof-of-stake mechanism is less energy consuming unlike Proof-of-work, it's scalable and faster in transaction even when there is lot of transaction at the same time, PoS still enable higher transaction speed and validators don't need to go through lot of computational work
| Proof-of-work | Proof-of-stake |
|---|---|
| Rebust Security | Scalability |
| Reliable | Energy efficiency |
| Proof-of-work | Proof-of-stake |
|---|---|
| Bitcoin | Ethereum2.0 |
| Ethereum | Cardano |
| Litecoin | Polkadot |
| Bitcoin Cash | COSMOS |
| Monero | Tezos |
| Zcash | Hive |
I hope this piece is informative and you learn a new thing today.