1/ Emin again with the BS that PoW’s role is merely a “Sybil-controlled mechanism”. (And therefore PoS is a reasonable drop-in replacement.)
It’s the classic mistake domain experts make when analyzing systems purely from their Point-of-View.
It’s the classic mistake domain experts make when analyzing systems purely from their Point-of-View.
2/ Here is Emin’s original “lecture” for reference
I seriously hope Emin is not the only one teaching blockchain at @Cornell. Because he is dead wrong.
I seriously hope Emin is not the only one teaching blockchain at @Cornell. Because he is dead wrong.
3/ Reducing PoW’s role to Sybil control is like an alien looking at cars and conclude that their main purpose is for protecting people from external objects. When they try to create the same thing, they might end up with something like the Flintstones’ car. 🙄 
4/ Where pure-CS-type PoS people fail is a complete disregard for (a) economics (b) history & (c) physics.
The same way people chased Perpetual Motion completely disregarded (a) (b) & (c), although they had a better excuse since they didn't possess the right conceptual tools.
The same way people chased Perpetual Motion completely disregarded (a) (b) & (c), although they had a better excuse since they didn't possess the right conceptual tools.
5/ If an object has value, people *will* spend effort to chase it, up to whatever the object is worth. MC=MR, in other words. PoS won’t save you from PoW’s “waste”, cost just manifests in a different way.
“Nothing is cheaper than PoW”. h/t @Truthcoin truthcoin.info/blog/pow-cheap…
“Nothing is cheaper than PoW”. h/t @Truthcoin truthcoin.info/blog/pow-cheap…
6/ PoW is what gives Bitcoin “unforgeable costliness”, something few CS people would even try to analyze.
@NickSzabo4 spent years researching & elaborately explained in his study on the Origin of Money: (Good) money *must* have unforgeable costliness.
nakamotoinstitute.org/shelling-out/
@NickSzabo4 spent years researching & elaborately explained in his study on the Origin of Money: (Good) money *must* have unforgeable costliness.
nakamotoinstitute.org/shelling-out/
7/ PoW is a lot more than Sybil-control, it gives digital blocks real-world weight, the same way Gold has real weight. What are blocks but simply a bunch of 1s & 0s?
PoW is the _bridge_ between the digital & the physical.
bitcointechtalk.com/the-anatomy-of…
PoW is the _bridge_ between the digital & the physical.
bitcointechtalk.com/the-anatomy-of…
8/ Value doesn’t come from nothing, it doesn’t arise just because a bunch of people collectively decide that some digital strings have value via their computer nodes - which is what Proof-of-Stake does.
9/ Like many astutely observed, if it was possible to create money this way (by hooking up a bunch of computers together), we wouldn’t have to wait until now.
Make no mistake, PoW mining & Nakamoto consensus are crucial in the creation of digital hard money.
Make no mistake, PoW mining & Nakamoto consensus are crucial in the creation of digital hard money.
10/ P.S. This type of tunnel vision & pretense of knowledge is what spawns a bunch of ludicrous ideas in the crypto space. From PoS to Ethereum to utility tokens.
11/ *Note: Unforgeable costliness is *not* the same thing as the labor theory of value:
12/ Note #2: don’t confuse the *creation* of value with the *transfer* of value
