This would only make the blockchain more resistant, 51% attacks practically impossible, Firo for example has implemented this, what would be the disadvantage?
This would only make the blockchain more resistant, 51% attacks practically impossible, Firo for example has implemented this, what would be the disadvantage?
A benefit of PoS that is relevant to the Monero use case is that it would allow faster finality times. How do you implement sub 5s finality with PoW? You can’t… If there is a use case for which fast finality matters is certainly in-person payments. I think this is a drawback for Monero that isn’t being discussed enough.
There has been many chains (I’ll take eCash - XEC as a model, fork of BCH that implemented the avalanche consensus) that have successfully implemented a hybrid PoW/PoS approach and I think exploring this for Monero would make sense. One of the big concern with PoS is coin distribution especially for crypto that had a pre-mine. That’s not a concern that Monero will ever have. PoW is still important to guarantee that the blockchain can be retrieved in a trustless manner. PoS has by design a trusted setup.
Let’s take the best of both worlds and make Monero a better medium of exchange that it’s already is.
By the way I don’t know if Aaron Day has commented on the reasons for choosing Zano for it point-of-sales system but I bet that fast finality was a key factor in his decision and honestly it makes sense. You can’t have a serious in-person payment solution being widely adopted with unpredictable, long finality times. Now if we want to stick to online payments only, fast finality isn’t as important but we have to be honest about the limitation of PoW for the digital cash use case.