It's about time to turn off PoW mining

[traderman]

How about www.gridcoin.us ?

Yes, PoW mining just waste too much energy, and the most important thing is mining is become a game between rich people who can afford buy the Asic miners. Everyone can mine bitcoin is out of date.

Agreed. What would you propose instead? PoS mining is even more a game of the rich, since it effectively by definition is the epitome of plutocracy!

[traderman]

Why do you think (Proof-of-Research) for Gridcoin will be a fail?

Yes, PoW mining just waste too much energy, and the most important thing is mining is become a game between rich people who can afford buy the Asic miners. Everyone can mine bitcoin is out of date.

Agreed. What would you propose instead? PoS mining is even more a game of the rich, since it effectively by definition is the epitome of plutocracy!

What do you want ?
Proof of Idle or Proof of Burn
So far i know, Proof of burn (PoB) is the best alternate to replace Proof of work (Proof of work)

Gridcoin use POR (Proof-of-Research), but i think it'll be fail
more info : http://themerkle.com/news/gridcoin-cryptocurrency-scientific-distributed-computing/

[Amph]

Yes, PoW mining just waste too much energy, and the most important thing is mining is become a game between rich people who can afford buy the Asic miners. Everyone can mine bitcoin is out of date.

but pow isn't really the problem, at the best they are dumping 2k-3k coins, this amount can't do nothing to the market, even if it is every day, also the heat generated can be used for something useful, not a total waste in the end

the real problems are

early adopters(and their manipulation)

not enough adoption(because of security)

[Daedelus]

Yes, PoW mining just waste too much energy, and the most important thing is mining is become a game between rich people who can afford buy the Asic miners. Everyone can mine bitcoin is out of date.

Agreed. What would you propose instead? PoS mining is even more a game of the rich, since it effectively by definition is the epitome of plutocracy!

Depends on the POS.

[Troonetpt]

Yes, PoW mining just waste too much energy, and the most important thing is mining is become a game between rich people who can afford buy the Asic miners. Everyone can mine bitcoin is out of date.

Agreed. What would you propose instead? PoS mining is even more a game of the rich, since it effectively by definition is the epitome of plutocracy!

Yes PoS mining is also a game of the rich, but compare pow, it's more efficient, at the same circumstances, which one do you choose, the answer is obviously.

[galbros]

I'm sorry but I just don't see any way this happens.  Getting rid of PoW would mean that all the big miners lose their investments in ASICS.  Since the miners effectively control what happens to Bitcoin, there is just no way.  Maybe if the Foundation was stronger, but unless there is a way for the miners to be made whole in any shift, it just is not going to happen.

[Amph]

Yes, PoW mining just waste too much energy, and the most important thing is mining is become a game between rich people who can afford buy the Asic miners. Everyone can mine bitcoin is out of date.

Agreed. What would you propose instead? PoS mining is even more a game of the rich, since it effectively by definition is the epitome of plutocracy!

Yes PoS mining is also a game of the rich, but compare pow, it's more efficient, at the same circumstances, which one do you choose, the answer is obviously.

the problem with pos is the initial distribution, it can be cheated so easily , like happened to faircoin, communitycoin ecc...

they must find a very transparent and fair initial distribution

[Daedelus]

Yes, PoW mining just waste too much energy, and the most important thing is mining is become a game between rich people who can afford buy the Asic miners. Everyone can mine bitcoin is out of date.

Agreed. What would you propose instead? PoS mining is even more a game of the rich, since it effectively by definition is the epitome of plutocracy!

Yes PoS mining is also a game of the rich, but compare pow, it's more efficient, at the same circumstances, which one do you choose, the answer is obviously.

the problem with pos is the initial distribution, it can be cheated so easily , like happened to faircoin, communitycoin ecc...

they must find a very transparent and fair initial distribution

Define fair distribution.

[0nlyBTC]

There is no incentive to run full nodes for POW while POS knocks two birds with one stone.

There is always POI (Proof-Of-Importance)

[Troonetpt]

Yes, PoW mining just waste too much energy, and the most important thing is mining is become a game between rich people who can afford buy the Asic miners. Everyone can mine bitcoin is out of date.

Agreed. What would you propose instead? PoS mining is even more a game of the rich, since it effectively by definition is the epitome of plutocracy!

Yes PoS mining is also a game of the rich, but compare pow, it's more efficient, at the same circumstances, which one do you choose, the answer is obviously.

the problem with pos is the initial distribution, it can be cheated so easily , like happened to faircoin, communitycoin ecc...

they must find a very transparent and fair initial distribution

initial distribution?
Do you really think there is no problem in bitcoin's initial distribution?
The early adopt always can get more cheap coins.
Hi, but we are here talk about switch pow to POS, so initial distribution is not a problem.
The distribution of bitcoin is completed.

[spartacusrex]

OK - feels like we go round in circles..

..

It is definitely NOT time to switch off POW..

Here's why.

Let us 'assume' that it is possible to solve the problem of distributed consensus using a POS chain. OK? Let's take that as a given (whether it is or is not..)

NOW - Here is the thing that some people simply don't understand..

Bitcoin DOES NOT derive it's value from the fact it solves the Distributed Consensus problem.

Bitcoin derives it's value from the energy the miners HAVE TO expend MINING the coins out of pure maths (And thus solving the DC problem one way). This sets a price floor.

POS - has some very useful properties, I love POS, BUT IT IS NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR POW.

Anyone, ANYONE, can copy / set up a POS network with EXACTLY the same features and SECURITY for nothing basically. This means that the POS network will have to value it's coins differently. Value them based on what they pay out, like dividends for a share (STAKE) in a company, for instance.

And actually - if you were to run a Blockchain system for Company governance, POS makes MUCH MORE SENSE than POW. There are definitely times when POS trumps POW, no question. But NOT FOR EVERY TASK.
 
POS vs POW ? They are 2 different animals, that solve a problem, in VERY different ways. They are not just interchangeable..

Don't you see ?

[belmonty]

That's a good point, people often say Bitcoins are worth nothing but what people are prepared to pay for them without considering how much electricity it costs to generate them.  However, if nobody is prepared to buy them the difficulty, and cost of electricity needed to generate them, drops until people are prepared to buy them again.

[Amph]

Yes, PoW mining just waste too much energy, and the most important thing is mining is become a game between rich people who can afford buy the Asic miners. Everyone can mine bitcoin is out of date.

Agreed. What would you propose instead? PoS mining is even more a game of the rich, since it effectively by definition is the epitome of plutocracy!

Yes PoS mining is also a game of the rich, but compare pow, it's more efficient, at the same circumstances, which one do you choose, the answer is obviously.

the problem with pos is the initial distribution, it can be cheated so easily , like happened to faircoin, communitycoin ecc...

they must find a very transparent and fair initial distribution

Define fair distribution.

everyone get a chance to have some, equal %, but it is almost impossible to achieve

Yes, PoW mining just waste too much energy, and the most important thing is mining is become a game between rich people who can afford buy the Asic miners. Everyone can mine bitcoin is out of date.

Agreed. What would you propose instead? PoS mining is even more a game of the rich, since it effectively by definition is the epitome of plutocracy!

Yes PoS mining is also a game of the rich, but compare pow, it's more efficient, at the same circumstances, which one do you choose, the answer is obviously.

the problem with pos is the initial distribution, it can be cheated so easily , like happened to faircoin, communitycoin ecc...

they must find a very transparent and fair initial distribution

initial distribution?
Do you really think there is no problem in bitcoin's initial distribution?
The early adopt always can get more cheap coins.
Hi, but we are here talk about switch pow to POS, so initial distribution is not a problem.
The distribution of bitcoin is completed.

it was different back then, because bitcoin was worthless, you can't really compare like that, now any new pos coin acquire a good value from launch(well not right now, because everything is died)

also bitcoin initial distribution was really good, people should blame themselves for not trusting it at that time(many did know about bitcoin in 2009 but they have not downloaded the client, because they thought that it was a virus or something...)

people just ignored bitcoin, so it's not really bitcoin fault

[redsn0w]

Yes, PoW mining just waste too much energy, and the most important thing is mining is become a game between rich people who can afford buy the Asic miners. Everyone can mine bitcoin is out of date.

Agreed. What would you propose instead? PoS mining is even more a game of the rich, since it effectively by definition is the epitome of plutocracy!

Yes PoS mining is also a game of the rich, but compare pow, it's more efficient, at the same circumstances, which one do you choose, the answer is obviously.

the problem with pos is the initial distribution, it can be cheated so easily , like happened to faircoin, communitycoin ecc...

they must find a very transparent and fair initial distribution

Define fair distribution.

everyone get a chance to have some, equal %, but it is almost impossible to achieve

We can say there isn't a fair distribution in both the algo. PoW and PoS. The problem is always the curiosity and confidence in that "coin", I am sure all we know there were a lot of users sold 20-30k bitcoin at 2 dollars due the "confidence". So it is not a problem of the algo at the end.... it is impossible to create a perfect algo >> coin.

[Brangdon]

Isn't PoS also difficult to achieve if a lot of coins are in cold storage? I mean how do you prove a node has control over a certain stake?

In Nxt this can be done by leasing one account's stake to another account. "Leasing" means the second account is forging as if it owned the first account's stake, but can't spend those coins or do anything else with them other than sign new blocks. The second account has to be online to make and sign new blocks, but that's safe because its own spendable balance is zero. The first account has the balance, but can be offline. The first account needs to create a transaction to tell the block-chain that it is leasing its balance, but that transaction can be created and signed offline and then the signed bytes transferred to an online node to be broadcast, so the first account's passphrase is never entered into a connected computer. It's always air-gapped.

Basically, this is a solved problem. It's the sort of thing you can do in a crypto-currency that has persistent accounts and a variety of transaction types.

[ajareselde]

There is not enough reasons to drop POW, miners and the mining industry is a core of bitcoin, and they would never be in favor of such a change, so your dreams stop right there,finito.
Anyways, if the money bleeding out through mining equipement and electricity costs starts hurting bitcoin in some major way, that just means that there is not enough interes and that bitcoin is dying.

[BitUsher]

For good or bad we are likely stuck with at least partially securing bitcoin with mining. We may as well try and find solutions to decentralize mining more.

[moko666]

if POW is turned off then there will no investment in mining so price can drop more, atleast now we have a minimum price of mining cost

[manselr]

There hasn't been a single system that it's worth replacing PoW with since the invention of Bitcoin. All those other alternative such as PoS, and the hybrid ones are just try hard ones. PoW is still the most solid self regulating system, satoshi was a true genius and it shows as time goes by and no one can come up with a better idea to secure a blockchain.

[Amph]

if POW is turned off then there will no investment in mining so price can drop more, atleast now we have a minimum price of mining cost

pow can't be turned off like you turn off a light of your room, the hash is distrubuted among several big farms, if one of these shut down the others will replace it with more equipments, i believe those machines are ready to be powered up, they are just waiting for a better price

also because of the diff retarget the diff won't come down so fast, thus the price will remain the same for two week at least