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Ouroboros: A Provably Secure Proof-of-Stake Blockchain Protocol [pdf] (2019)

eprint.iacr.org

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Re: Ouroboros: A Provably Secure Proof-of-Stake Blockchain Protocol [pdf] (2019)

#6

Post by gvhst »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #5

How does this compare to the current implementation of proof of stake in Ethereum 2.0?

They claim (via formal verification, I cannot speak to their threat model with much accuracy) that they are able to achieve the same or better security properties as ETH 2.0 without lockups (staked funds earning income are like demand deposits) or slashing (penalties for bad behavior / bad network performance).

The project as a whole (Cardano) has some other notable advantages. Personally, it has a built in governance system which actively funds projects / improvement proposals paid for by some of the block rewards & fees. Cardano just had their first round of voting and funding which gave in aggregate $250k to a variety of projects [0]. Funding batch sizes are expected to grow to $10 million dollars a year in 2021 (at current prices). This is where I'd draw the largest difference between ETH 2.0 and Cardano (the project which developed and uses Ouroboros)

[0] https://iohk.io/en/blog/posts/2021/01/12/project-catalyst-th...

Re: Ouroboros: A Provably Secure Proof-of-Stake Blockchain Protocol [pdf] (2019)

#8

Post by martindale »

Proof of Stake not only replicates the same dynamics that Bitcoin was designed to eliminate (more wealth -> more power in system) but also can only be made secure against a maximum of ⅓ byzantine actors, compared to Proof of Work's superior ½.

As for using it for Layer 1 systems, Andrew Poelstra nailed it in his conclusion [0]:

"We showed that by depending only on resources within the system, proof of stake cannot be used to form a distributed consensus, since it depends on the very history it is trying to form to enforce loss of value."

Proof of Stake might be useful at Layer 2 (becoming equivalent to voting stock in a company), but not as a base-layer consensus mechanism.

[0]: https://download.wpsoftware.net/bitcoin/pos.pdf

Re: Ouroboros: A Provably Secure Proof-of-Stake Blockchain Protocol [pdf] (2019)

#9

Post by gvhst »

martindale wrote: post #8

Proof of Stake not only replicates the same dynamics that Bitcoin was designed to eliminate (more wealth -> more power in system) but also can only be made secure against a maximum of ⅓ byzantine actors, compared to Proof of Work's superior ½. As for using it for Layer 1 systems, Andrew Poelstra nailed it in his conclusion [0]: "We showed that by depending only on resources within the system, proof of stake cannot be…

Not sure if you are claiming that BTC currently solves the "more wealth -> more power in system" problem but it clearly doesn't. The current state of affairs is more wealth -> more ASICS R&D and infrastructure budget -> more hash power -> more power in the system.

Re: Ouroboros: A Provably Secure Proof-of-Stake Blockchain Protocol [pdf] (2019)

#10

Post by Mindless2112 »

dgellow wrote: post #2

You may also want to see this video from 2018 where the paper is presented by Christian Badertscher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCA0h73q3qQ&list=PLnPTB0CuBO...

Unfortunately, the introduction of the presentation took too much time, so the novel part of the presentation is very hand-wavy.
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