Dear Readers,
As we’ve learned over the past several weeks, Bitcoin is the only decentralized blockchain in existence. Most other cryptocurrencies and protocols advertise themselves as decentralized, but are in reality decentralized in name only.
A key component of Bitcoin’s decentralization is its security. The Bitcoin blockchain has an ever-increasing amount of computing power processing transactions on its network and thousands of nodes verifying that those transactions adhere to the rules established by the Bitcoin community.
Given the massive amount of people, computers, and energy securing Bitcoin, it’s reasonable to say that Bitcoin has the strongest network in the space. However, there are those who would call into question whether Bitcoin’s proof of work (PoW) consensus mechanism is as secure as other consensus mechanisms.
Proof of stake (PoS) is the elephant in the room in light of Ethereum’s recent move to use it in place of proof of work, so naturally our discussion today will compare those two consensus mechanisms:
