Explained: What Is Proof of Work (PoW) in Blockchain?

The blockchain is commonly perceived through the prism of Bitcoin’s Nakamoto Consensus. But in order to learn more about what Proof of Work is, it is essential to look closely into the sustainable PoW implementation.

Proof of Work (commonly abbreviated to PoW) is a consensus algorithm used for preventing the 51% attack or double-spends. Cryptocurrency like Bitcoin is using the PoW consensus to confirm transactions and produce new blocks added to the chain. With PoW, miners compete to complete transactions on the network in exchange for a reward for their speed and accuracy.

The Key Takeaways:

• Understanding the concept of Proof of Work and how it’s being used to secure the blockchain network.
• Finding out what are the mathematical problems the miners are actually solving and how impactful does these calculations contribute to the society as a whole.
• Get to know who’s involved in the mining process using the Proof of Work consensus.
• Knowing which cryptocurrencies that are still rely on Proof of Work and why Ethereum chooses to hard fork to Ethereum 2.0.
• Get a holistic view as to why Proof of Stake consensus is more secure and fairer than Proof of Work.