What is Pure Proof of Stake?
I love Cars! Ive always been a huge fan! From a Camaro for its speed to an MG for its classic look. I love everything about cars! It’s such a complex machine yet has such a personality of its own. Everything from speed, to classic restorations, to the gadgets in the interior, and of course… that they run smoothly. Preferably with a less consumption of gas as possible. I think in a way we all love cars in our own way as well. If theres one absolute for certain aspect of cars we all commonly share.. it’s the functionality. So what im saying is that it actually runs! When you need to get from point A to point B, all you care about is that the car runs. Runs correctly! You don’t need to know everything that happens under the hood or how it works.
The point is that this complex yet everyday conventional machine gets you to your destination. Isn’t it crazy to think that our cars are so complex but we still use them faithfully everyday? We have our cars which have a lot of computers within that are all working together and talking to each other with one single goal in mind…. Keep the car running. This principle is called the distributed systems field. Which is the root of consensus algorithms. Like a blockchain, a lot of computers working at once to get a single purpose done. Now these computers are not only working together, but there’s also aiding in the process to make sure all transactions are the correct ones. So… once these Nodes verify the transactions are good, they become part of the ecosystem. This process is called Pure Proof of Stake. Before we talk about the Pure Proof of Stake, let’s talk about what many refer to the foundation of the blockchain. The Blockchain Triangle.
The Blockchain trilemma
So there’s basically three different requirements for a network to work as a blockchain, first there’s scalability, then security and finally decentralization. A Blockchain has the solve these three problems. Most that works these days only cover two of these the great thing about Algorand is that is can accomplish all three of these. Scalability is how many transactions can be made and how efficient is the cost of these transactions. Security is how to avoid these attacks and how to avoid forks or bad elements to be thrown inside the blockchain. Decentralization is how many people are really making the decision of approving these transactions.
Proof of work
Proof of work is when you put your computer to mine some new blocks or transactions. Then the computer has to find a new Hash to put a new block on the blockchain. This is why Proof of work is not a long term scalable because they’re really expensive for each transaction. Some transactions are slow and you need a lot of computer power. The question arises… are they decentralized?? Unfortunately not really because there aren’t that many Nodes that control a lot of power around the network for the approval of transactions. Not to mention, they’re not completely secure.
Refer to this video on more from the Algorand Developer Portal library: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u0lJsXky7Y
Proof of stake is when you put your tokens into staking inside the Node. The Node that has more stake tokens will be the validator for the new blocks. Of course it is combined with different variations and with different factors like randomness.
Pure Proof of Stake
The most important fundamental of a Blockchain is a secure, reliable, and fast creation of the next block. This block eventually becomes part of blockchain. The tool that creates and validates the next block in a Blockchain is called a consensus mechanism. Pure Proof of Stake works by randomly selecting groups from the participating Algo holders and these different committees validate and approve the next block in the chain. Again all done randomly. These committees are chosen using to you using a unique cryptographic random tool called the VRF (verifiable random function). Every time a block is written, a new group of random committees is established and the block creation process starts all over again. This is how Algorand has solved the Blockchain problem. This is how Algorand solves all 3 aspects of the blockchain triangle. This process was invented by Algorand founder Silvio Mccally. The VRF process is important because this is a way we can create a random function, so truly do it decentralized. We could essentially keep repeating this process, doing so in the most secure way.
Please use the Developer Portal link for more details: https://developer.algorand.org/docs/get-details/algorand_consensus/
We can also mention how important it is to participate in the Algorand Consensus Protocol by running a node yourself. First you install a package manager to automatically start the node. Starting and stopping a node should be done using systemctl commands:
sudo systemctl start algorandsudo systemctl stop algorand
The status of the node can be checked by running:
goal node status -d /var/lib/algorandQuick guide for Node installs as well as Node types:
This process is so important! Not just in blockchain development, but also in making sure that all the characters are performing their correct functions. The more we think about this pure proof of stake process and how it absolutely enables exact execution that illuminates error, we can’t help to think of what else we can apply this principle too. Let’s think back to our a cars from the beginning of our story. How life changing would it be if we can have all the systems in our car working in such a way that not only do we each perform their function but also a way to verify that everyone else is doing their function as well. It would prevent a lot of time in the mechanic shop. Decentralized cars…? Maybe maybe it’s wishful thinking but who knows! After all the more decentralized we become as a society the more will be able to solve some of our most existing problems.
