How Does Proof of Weight (PoW) Work?
- Every node is assigned a certain “weight” that represents a user’s contribution to the network, this method also protects the network from double-spend attacks and ensures the network remains secure as long as the majority (more than two-thirds) of the weighted fraction are honest users.
- The weighted factors not only measure the number of tokens owned by the node but also other factors like Spacetime, reputation, and any other measurable metric.
- For example, in a file storage project, the metric would be the amount of IPFS (file) data users are storing.
- Each time a transaction is made on a blockchain the network creates a committee of random network members and assigns each member their ‘weight’ using the Proof-of-Weight consensus mechanism which slightly centralizes the consensus process within the random committee.
Proof of Weight (PoW) Consensus Mechanism in Blockchain
A blockchain is a distributed ledger in which a record of transactions made in Bitcoin, or another cryptocurrency is maintained across several computers that are linked in a peer-to-peer network. The Blockchain ledger is immutable, decentralized, digitized, secure, traceable, and scalable and generates a great sense of trust by incorporating a consensus algorithm. Proof of Weight is a blockchain-based consensus mechanism that gives users a weight based on how much cryptocurrency they are holding. Currently, there are many consensus mechanisms in use but, the most popular of these is Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanisms.
Proof-of-work and proof-of-stake variations remain the most widely used mechanisms for reaching consensus but come with some limitations. Proof of Stake gives an unfair advantage to the rich nodes as more the coins they own more they can earn while Proof of Work consumes a lot of electricity and requires a complex hardware setup. As a result, Proof of Weight has been introduced recently and is different from the Proof of Work and Proof of Stake mechanism.