What is the difference between Filecoin mining and POW, POS, and POC?

There are still two days until the launch of the Filecoin testnet. Are the miners who have already completed the layout eager to try? Filecoin mining is very different from mining BTC, EOS, BHD and other currencies. It all comes down to the problem of consensus mechanism. Today, let’s talk about the difference between Filecoin mining and BTC, EOS, BHD mining:

PoW (Proof of Work) is the proof-of-work mechanism, which is the oldest consensus mechanism. Each node in the entire system provides computing power (computing power for short) for the entire system. Through a competition mechanism, the node that completes the best computing work will receive the system reward, that is, the distribution of newly generated currency is completed. In simple terms, the more you work, the more you get. Currency blockchains such as BTC and LTC apply the POW mechanism.

BTC has been running stably for more than 10 years since its birth, and the PoW consensus mechanism has also proved its security and stability.

The PoW consensus mechanism uses a lot of energy to perform hash operations to compete for computing power, and uses high computing power to maintain the stability of the blockchain. In periods of high computing power, it costs a lot to attack the blockchain. However, if the computing power of the entire network decreases, double-spending attacks are likely to occur, such as BTG and ETC have encountered double-spending attacks.

In addition, the most criticized thing about the PoW consensus mechanism is its high energy consumption. According to reports, in recent years, the global electricity consumption for mining has reached an astonishing 1% of the world's total annual electricity consumption.

PoS (Proof of Staking) is a proof of stake mechanism, which was first adopted in the Peercoin project in 2012. PoS calculates the coin age based on the number of tokens in the account and the number of days they have been stored. The probability of obtaining a place in the block packing is determined by the coin age. The more coins you hold and the longer you hold them, the higher the probability of obtaining a place in the block packing.

The advantage of PoS is that it shortens the time to reach consensus and avoids consuming a lot of energy for mining. The disadvantage is that tokens must be obtained through purchase, which lowers the threshold for ordinary people to obtain cryptocurrencies. The credit foundation of cryptocurrencies with PoS mechanism is relatively weak. At the same time, the pledge model brought by Staking also reduces liquidity to a certain extent.

POC Proof of Capacity generates a large number of pseudo-random numbers through a certain established algorithm and stores these random numbers in the hard disk. When competing to pack blocks, it only needs to scan the disk (also known as reading the disk) and randomly match them one by one to pack the blocks. BHD, SINOC, BRUST and other currencies all use the POC consensus mechanism.

It reduces a lot of calculations, reduces the waste of resources, and reduces the cost of mining; it avoids the emergence of AISC mining machines, and the threshold for participating in mining is relatively low; if the mining machine stops mining, it only needs to format the hard disk and it can be reused. However, POC is in the growth stage, and there are relatively few miners.

PoSt (Proof of Spacetime), the consensus mechanism of proof of spacetime, is the consensus mechanism adopted by the Filecoin project. Professor Dong Tianyi believes that proof of spacetime is essentially a type of storage proof. The data stored by the user itself is used as proof of the size of the computing power. Proof of spacetime is also an innovative computing power mechanism of Filecoin. It is used to prove the amount of data a miner has within a period of time, and then use the amount of data as proof of the size of the computing power.

In the exploration of consensus mechanisms, the Protocol Labs led by Juan Benet has given it careful thought. In the Filecoin white paper, they mentioned the need to explore a useful consensus mechanism. This year marks the fifth year since the launch of the Filecoin project. The determination and will of the project team to build a project in five years is beyond doubt. PoSt is a complex consensus mechanism. According to the current official announcement, the Filecoin mainnet will be launched in the first quarter of 2020. By then, how much superiority the PoSt consensus mechanism can bring and how much mining bonuses will be under the PoSt consensus mechanism will be verified. Let's wait and see~