Unit 8: Alternative consensus mechanisms
- Slides: 1-per-page PDF, 3-per-page PDF
1 Summary and Goals
We saw that Bitcoin mining is the cause of numerous technical and sociatal issues. As a result, many alternative cryptocurrencies are adopting or investigating alternative methods to achieve blockchain consensus and reliability. We will mostly focus on ASIC-resistant mining (as is employed in Ethereum today) and Proof of Stake (as is planned for Ethereum 2.0).
2 Reading
- Chapter 8 of Narayanan et al, which starts on page 216 of this pdf. Particular focus: sections 8.2 and 8.5