4 August 2021
Zooko Wilcox, who collaborated with Satoshi Nakamoto in the early days of Bitcoin and launched the fork that created Zcash, is publicly promoting a move from Proof of Work validation to Proof of Stake.
Like Bitcoin, Zcash is based on a Proof of Work consensus mechanism that validates transactions and adds data to the blockchain through algorithmic computations performed on network nodes. Today, Zcash validation is performed almost entirely by professional miners who use specially designed computer gear to perform the calculations more quickly than everyday users can do them on their PCs.
In a blog post at Electric Coin Co., which launched Zcash, Wilcox provides a list of advantages associated with a move to Proof of Stake validation, including a reduction in environmental impact, improved security, and lower costs.
The Bitcoin blockchain is the crypto world’s largest and most widely used, but it is among a dwindling minority that still rely on Proof of Work validation. Most new blockchains are based on Proof of Stake mechanisms for establishing consensus on block order and validity.
A few projects – the list includes Celer Network, Fantom, Icon Network, Neo, OMG Network, Polkadot, Stellar, and Tezos – use alternative consensus mechanisms ranging from Delegated Proof of Stake and Liquid Proof of Stake to Proof of Authority and Asynchronous Byzantine Fault-Tolerant Proof of Stake. Validation is a source of network slowdowns and high transaction fees, so many researchers are experimenting with novel consensus mechanisms.
Learn more about Zcash here.
