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March 26, 2019, 07:55:50 PM |
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Some people ask us about the design philosophy of PoC, here is a brief introduction:
Consensus entropy and PoC consensus mechanism
Basic idea: Use entropy concept from physics in block chain, thus, we introduce the concept of consensus entropy.
1. The concept of consensus entropy In a distributed system, by default, the reliability of every node is unstable; maybe there are many false nodes (created by script nodes). Under such a situation, we can say the system is in chaos. In other words, "consensus entropy" is very high. The computation used in PoW of bitcoin is to eliminate false nodes; in the meantime, to punish false/dishonest nodes in order to ensure the consensus in the end. From physics point of view, those extra computing power from computer is the work of a high entropy distributed system. Thus, it reduces the entropy of the system in order to build consensus in the end. As a result, it can complete the basic function of block chain.
2. Is it necessary to elimination of entropy endlessly? PoW is currently the most reliable consensus mechanism (calculation). But, the short coming is obvious as well, because it needs to work constantly to maintain low entropy status unanimously. Thus, it wastes a lots of energy. It will generate 1.3 ton carbon dioxide and costs thousands dollar to produce one bitcoin. Is that really necessary?
The two main functions of PoW are 1) eliminating the false node, 2) punishing the false node.
2.1. Eliminating the false node:
In the every round of PoW calculation, it is contentious on every node in order to do the block chain mining. The false node does not have computing power. Therefore, it will be eliminated. In this process, all the real nodes will do a massive computation for the system and it will reduce the consensus entropy to reach the consensus in the end. But from the next block, all the nodes will start eliminating entropy all over again. Therefore, the huge resources are being wasted. We kind of know this is unnecessary, because the system is in low entropy status. The very next round consensus should start from the "low entropy" status, not to start from the very beginning, forgetting about its "low entropy" status. The short coming of PoW is the design flaw, without ability to maintain its own "low entropy" status. Thus, the whole system is to eliminate entropy endlessly.
2.2. Punish the false/dishonest node: Besides the punishment for computing power, there are some other punishment method such as using "token." So, it is not a must to punish false/dishonest node in PoW.
In summary, if we can design a system to maintain its low entropy after the previous elimination of entropy; in conjunction with other punishment measures, we can create a new consensus mechanism method without PoW.
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