LapseCoin, an experiment: does VDF (time race) consensus actually decentralize?

[vicnas]

Long time no post here. One month ago I launched LapseCoin, a peer to peer chain that skips proof of work and instead uses a Verifiable Delay Function for block timing, with FALCON-512 (post-quantum) signatures on transactions.

The actual reason I'm posting: I don't know the answer to a real question and I'd like more nodes to help find out. Most cumulative proven work wins, like Bitcoin, but "work" here comes from a VDF instead of hashing. The open question is whether that converges to whoever has the fastest single prover, or whether it actually stays decentralized in practice. A month in, the network is still tiny, so it can't tell me anything yet.

If you're curious about VDF-based consensus, post-quantum sigs, or just want to poke at something different from another PoW/PoS clone, here's what's around:

Releases (self-contained binaries, no deps): https://github.com/Vic-Nas/lapsecoin/releases
Live node/dashboard: https://lapsenode.vicnas.me/odds
Whitepaper: https://github.com/Vic-Nas/lapsecoin/blob/main/docs/whitepaper.md
Discord: https://discord.gg/FP2d8JmK6r

Running a node just means grabbing the binary and running it, wallet's at localhost:8335, explorer at localhost:8333. Source is open, builds run through public CI, nothing hidden.

Not asking anyone to buy or trade anything, there's genuinely no meaningful profit angle here (just Discord exchanges). Just want more independent nodes so the decentralization question has actual data behind it instead of 3 machines that are all mine.
It takes about 1 min to run a node btw.

[Ucy]

Looks like a variant of Proof of Work.
I think what qualifies a Blockchain as Proof of Work is the presence of some sort of puzzle, the need to work to solve it and proving the work has been done with the right solution.
Ofcourse, as long as it's competitive and no limit is placed on how much work can be done by a prover, there will eventually be fastest one dominating the work. But that does not mean centralization unless barrier to entry for provers is high.



It was suggested sometimes ago that instead of creating "endless" amount altcoins developers should focus more on creating well decentralized sidechains of Bitcoin Blockchain (with rich ecosystem). The sidechain should have Bitcoin peg as the main coin and its native altcoin as secondary coin...could also have other altcoins pegs. Pegging is done via bridging from the respective coins Blockchains. If the sidechain is well decentralized/secure and has rich ecosystem that's not too difficult to use, people will definitely show up.

[denshin]

Chia ran into the same question with its timelords. The fastest timelord does win nearly every race there, but timelords don't earn block rewards: rewards go to farmers through proof of space, and the VDF only keeps the clock. So block production stays spread out even though the timing is done by the fastest machine.

In your design the VDF picks the winner directly, so I'd agree with Ucy that it drifts toward the fastest single prover, the same way hashing drifted toward ASICs. Your odds page is already the right instrument for this: once there are more nodes, if one box takes nearly every block, verification is decentralized but production isn't.