Home What is Proof of Work?

If you hate math and you have solved a very difficult mathematical equation, one of the things that come in your mind is to have a credit for it.

That is the basic explanation of the “proof of work,” which is a consent mechanism that works with Bitcoin and a numerous assorted cryptocurrencies. Most of the crypto miners in every corner of the world make use of the computer systems that process every transaction over the decentralized networks. It also performs difficult cryptographic math in the chase of the block hash.

When it comes to Blockchain, the algorithm is being utilized to settle every dealing and create new blocks to be added to the chain. With the use of Proof of Work, the miners are competing with each other to complete their dealings on the network to get some rewards.

In a network, its user will send various digital tokens. On the other hand, the decentralized will get the entire dealings to the block. But, a user should take good care with every transaction happening to settle the dealings and organize the blocks.

This duty tolerates the special nodes that are known to be miners, and the process that these miners do is known as mining.

The major working ideas are the difficult mathematical problem and the chance of solving it that easy.

What Does Mathematical Problem Means?

The term “mathematical problem” is referred to as a problem that needs numerous computational in solving it.

The following are just an example of computational power. Read on to know more about it.

  • Guided tour puzzle control – if the user of the system thinks that there is a DoS attack, the hash functions need to be calculated when it comes to a particular node in a clear order. In this situation, the problem is “how to find a chain of hash function values?”
  • Integer factorization – in short words, this is how you will present a particular number as a multiplication of two various amount of number.
  • Hash function – in other words, it is all about finding the input knowing the possible output.

Hash is the term used to define the answers to the mathematical equation of the Proof of Work problem.

As long as the network is working and developing, it cannot be denied that they usually encounter lots of problems and difficulties. It only means that the algorithm is in need to have lots of has powers to answer these issues. Thus, the difficulty of the work is considered as a sensitive problem.

At first, this Proof of Work was called as “pricing via processing.” This is the idea that was established by Monia Nao together with Cynthia Dwork, which are both computer scientists way back in 1993. Both of them referred to this system to be used to avoid email spam and denial of service attacks on the internet these days. The idea of “pricing via processing” was turned to be “proof of work” or PoW for short. This was dubbed by Ari Juels and Markus Jakobsson.

Proof of Work pivots on making use of the computer systems to look for the possible answers to the issues that cannot be denied as hard to answer. But the good news is that the correct answer can be confirmed easily. This came to be the high niche topic when it comes to academics, but Hal Finney, a computer scientist have smelled some potentials. Way back in 1999, Hal Finney has the credit in bringing the Proof of Work to the money in the digital world. It was first known as the “reusable proof of work token.” In addition, it is considered to be included in the list of the earliest precursors that we have in today’s cryptocurrency.

How Proof of Work works?

Various cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are blockchain systems that are being upheld with the help of the decentralized network of nodes. Miners are considered as nodes. The work of the miners is to enhance various blocks to the blockchain. Miners who are working on the similar network usually contend with each other in solving difficult computational puzzles. As we have mentioned above, all of the mathematical puzzles of the mathematical equations are hard to find answers. But you can always verify easily and with convenience if the answer is correct.

Most of the miners are guessing a random number that usually has a higher rate. A nonce is a technical word for that. After that, when the guessed numbers and the data are combined and passed the cryptographic hash function, the blockhash, which is the answer, must meet the entire conditions. For instance, it usually needs to start with a four-digit number.

Once the answer is correct, the various nodes will verify it, and the miner will be rewarded for giving a correct answer or blockhash.

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