Bitcoin's energy-intensive PoW will be replaced? The creator of BitTorrent proposes using disk space for mining

BitTorrent developer Bram Cohen has published a new white paper that envisions an economically friendly alternative to bitcoin’s energy-intensive proof-of-work consensus method.

The approach, called “proof-of-space,” relies on disk space rather than computing power as the primary resource for mining, creating an alternative that claims to be more eco-friendly and economical than PoW.

In March, Cohen told CoinDesk he was working on such a solution, laying the groundwork for the release of the white paper this week.

The paper, titled "Surpassing the Hellmann Time-Memory Tradeoff with Proof-of-Space Applications," outlines a way to create a mining process that requires less energy by using proof-of-space. Bitcoin's energy-intensive mining model has been criticized by many as a waste of resources. Due to the reduced energy requirements and reliance on existing hardware, this method is intended to be accessible to anyone with a computer.

Under the proof-of-space system, miners can allocate unused disk space to the network, and the probability of successfully mining a block will be proportional to the disk space allocated by the miner and the total capacity of the network.

In addition to Cohen, other authors of the white paper include Hamza Abusalah, Joel Alwen and Krzysztof Pietrzak from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Danylo Khilko from the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, and Leonid Reyzin from Boston University.

However, whether the white paper will form the basis for a new cryptocurrency remains to be seen, and Cohen told CoinDesk that he does not think a new cryptocurrency needs to be created.

“There is largely no need to launch a new cryptocurrency.”

He also said:

“But I have ideas about mining and how to fundamentally change it.”