Hello community,
Bitcoin (and altcoin) mining is starting to use a lot of power (e.g.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/27/bitcoin-mining-consumes-electricity-ireland). Besides keeping the Bitcoin ecosystem alive, spending that power has no other practical use.
It is a way, and it works, but it's not very efficient. Here's a metaphor: A gasoline motor has efficiency of ~30%, while electric motors have >90%. Yes, we used and still use gasoline & diesel (eff. 45%) engines, but electric are starting to have their piece of cake because in the end it is the better technology.
So the new types of consensus algorithms are being developed constantly, and I'm interested in those that provide something useful in addition to "writing transactions in the public ledger in a safe way".
I'll start off with an idea to clarify what I mean and hopefully we can come to a conclusion if it is possible and what would it take.
Let's call it
Proof of Printing :
My cousin is into amateur 3D printing. He prints some stuff for a local community and the low budget printers still require a lot of time to print. Let's say that his printer is working 6h/day.
? How would it work ?
Well there should be some sort of a device connected or implemented in a 3D printer that would serve as imutable proof that work is being done (electricity & material being spent), while also having capability to write transactions or whatever useful things graphic cards do.
An obstacle is: how to prove that useful work is being done (e.g. you're not printing random things and throwing them in the trash afterwards)?
? Who would do it ?
Because of the obstacles for making it legit, it would probably need some sort of a KYC. Also, it probably wouldn't function as a standalone mining/consensus method (because of a possibly small user base) but as a part of a multi-algorithm mining system.
This idea is not well thought, but is an example of a
Proof of Useful Work.
Opinions about other types of "Proof of Useful Work" are very welcome, be it existing ideas (like Steem's Proof of Brain!) or some of your own!