The debate about the best consensus algorithm continues to grow. Critics accuse Bitcoin of wasting electricity through PoW. Soon a modification called Proof of Useful Work will be released. Does this follow the solution of the discussion?
Why does Bitcoin Proof of Work remain faithful?
The Bitcoin has already experienced some setbacks, which, at least according to official statements, are often due to the energy-consuming Proof of Work algorithm SHA-256.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk expressed his support for BTC for years before Tesla finally accepted it as a means of payment for its own cars in March 2021.
However, this acceptance lasted only for a few months. Musk stated that he would no longer promote the use of Bitcoin, as its negative impact on the environment was simply too drastic due to its electricity consumption.
Since then, Musk has turned to Dogecoin, which is also based on a POW algorithm, but which requires less energy. With Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency even changes the consensus algorithm directly.
Starting with Ethereum 2.0, the blockchain will be converted to proof of stake. This decision was not made solely in favor of a lower energy requirement. Scalability is also expected to grow significantly as a result.
Nevertheless, criticism of PoW is not uncommon because of the power consumption. Critics often present PoS as a better alternative. However, Ethereum initiator Vitalik Buterin himself already made it clear that Ethereum is also experiencing a new level of centralization due to the new algorithm.
However, the Bitcoin remains true to the proof of work. In summary, the reason for this is a significantly higher level of security. In PoS systems, block production falls conspicuously heavily into the hands of the richest stakers, who then appear excessively often as validators. Also possible censorship is much easier to implement through PoS.
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Is PoUW the answer to power consumption?
Developers of Flux want to combine the necessary with the useful and therefore announced in the summer of 2021 to work on Proof of Useful Work (PoUW).
The main difference to classic PoW: instead of random algorithms, PoUW miners solve very specific tasks for which you would have to spend computing power anyway.
Examples include machine learning, the automated detection of deepfakes or the rendering of models for disease researchers from [email protected]
This innovation will make Flux the first environmentally friendly blockchain and at the same time significantly expand the computational network resources of the Flux ecosystem.
Write about it in a press release. In short, the goal is to solve “real problems”, instead of specifically created, but meaningless tasks as they are known from BTC and ETH so far.
💡
The recent criticism of the Proof of Work was not hidden from the Flux developers either. However, PoS is not considered to be the solution to the problem – this is exactly why they are currently working on establishing the first PoUW algorithm.
The energy expended would then no longer be “wasted”, but always serves a higher goal.
The first PoUW blockchain is scheduled to launch this year
The task of Flux is to provide a computing network that enables decentralized cloud computing. In May, Bitcoin2Go reported on the mainnet launch of the decentralized Google alternative Presearch.
Presearch uses Flux’s decentralized data storage to provide its service. Currently, Flux itself uses a POW algorithm called ZelHash – a modification of the better-known Equihash.
A few days ago, the approximate publication date of the PoUW algorithm was announced on Twitter. Accordingly, it will start in the fourth quarter of this year.
📢 Announcement! 🔥
The evolution of GPU #Mining is on its way!
POW –> PoUW#Flux #web3 #DeFi #blockchain pic.twitter.com/Zi7O73P6B5
– Flux English 🇩🇪 🇦🇹 🇨🇭 (@FluxDeutsch) July 6, 2022
By the end of the year, Flux will convert the previous algorithm and thus launch the first PoUW blockchain. This event has no influence on the Bitcoin, it continues to work as usual.
However, a success of this idea could impressively prove how to kill two birds with one stone with a modified Proof of Work blockchain. Unlike the Bitcoin network, Flux is ASIC-resistant.
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