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Bitcoin uses proof of work to secure the network, Ripple uses a global consensus system and PPCoin uses proof of stake.
Are there any known alternatives to the above methods?
Are there alternatives for proof of work?
Answers
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Another alternative is proof of burn.
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A really quick answer is this: The proof of work system is a solution to the distributed synchronization issue; in another guise it is called the Byzantine Generals' Problem. Thus, any solution to this problem is an acceptable alternative, however the proof-of-work solution is particularly suited to distributed systems.
You can read Satoshi Nakamoto's discussion of this here.
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I have been researching on blockchain for sometime now and some of them I found are a mix of some existing and some proposed.
- Proof-of-Stake
- Proof-of-Burn
- Proof-of-Capacity
- Proof-of-Activity
- Proof-of-Checkpoint
Source: https://bytecoin.org/blog/proof-of-activity-proof-of-burn-proof-of-capacity/
Link is dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304055454/https://bytecoin.org/blog/proof-of-activity-proof-of-burn-proof-of-capacity/
2in the ppc paper they talk about a 'proof of excellence' where all peers compete to solve a game. It is basically proof of work, buta better algorithm could score higher. – placeybordeaux – 2013-03-20T19:33:59.747
@David Perry. This is a subtly different question than what you've suggested as a duplicate. This person is asking if there exist alternative distributed synchronization algorithms. The other question asks if the proof-of-work system can prove secondarily-useful work. There is a clear difference. – Rooke – 2013-03-21T03:50:36.520
@Rooke fair enough, I'll re-open it. – David Perry – 2013-03-21T05:08:59.270
possible duplicate of Is there a way to set up proof-of-work systems so it would be even more useful?
– Stephen Gornick – 2013-09-28T15:40:44.353