Consensus Mechanism

[Srujan007]

How does a mix between Proof Of Work and Proof Of Stake work?

[Anycoin Direct Support]

Hello Srujan007,

A hybrid variant of the consensus-algorithms PoW and PoS, works by allowing consensus to occur through both proof of work mining and proof of stake.
There are several kinds of methods that could be considered a hybrid implementation of these consensuses, but in general they will aim to reach a balance between the miners and the stakeholders.

One example of a crypocurrency that utilizes this hybrid consensus algorithm is Espers (ESP). You can find their whitepaper here.
This coin has achieved distributed consensus by successfully having implemented a combination of these principles.

Another cryptocurrency that is going to use a combination of these two kinds of algorithms is Ethereum.
Their algorithm is called "Casper the Friendly Finality Gadget", of which you can find the technical paper here.
In the near future we can expect the implementation of this new algorithm on the Ethereum network.


With kind regards,
The Anycoin Direct team.

[Heisenberg_Hunter]

Anycoin has given a good insight on hybrid PoW and PoS. But are you asking about the shifting of a coin from PoW to PoS or about using both the algorithms as a combined one? Both seems to be different when it comes to existence

The shifting of the mining process from PoW to PoS algorithm will be carried out by VB in the hard fork Casper where the Eth chain will no longer be mined using the PoW algorithm and huge computational power won't be spent in mining them. In order the shift practically from PoW to PoS, eth implements a unique idea known as "Ethereum Ice Age". This event seems to take place in the future(10-12 months) where at a point a miner cannot mine the block due to the exponential rise in the difficulty of the chain. This prompts them to shift to the Casper protocol which uses the PoS algorithm where the miner would be chosen based on the amount of stakes he hold in ethereum. This is one of the technique of using the hybrid PoW-PoS algorithm.


On the contrary, if you are asking about a mix of both the algorithms it would happen something like a "Casper embedded with Bitcoin". Though bitcoin would always stick to the PoW mining method where the first miner who builds the block and finds the nounce receives the block reward. If a mix of both these algorithm occurs, the miner should be owning a good stake in the currency and one who has the largest share will most probably mine the next one. It may happen something like using the computation power for PoW at first and then need to own stakes in the currency  for the PoS part and I don't think a mix of both of these could work out possibly.
Hope this helps