Update pow.md

Signed-off-by: stupdi <mukund@ayyalasomayajula.net>
2025-04-19 23:04:48 -05:00
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+# The three pillars of PoW
+## Asymmetry
+Easy to verify, hard to compute
+## Puzzle/Challenge
+Have to solve a very challenging(computationally) problem
+## Nonce
+A value used to vary inputs until the puzzle solution meets a requirement.
+
+# Common Puzzles/Challenges for PoW
+ Bitcoin's SHA256:
+Find a nonce such that ```hash(block + nonce)``` starts with a specific number of zeros.
+This is usually only used for blockchains, hence there is the block. However, this could be used for other applications as well.
+
+ ProgPoW:
+Heavily GPU and CPU intensive, as it creates a psuedo-random program that does several seemingly random operations using the nonce to generate a number that one can "mine" in order to get.
+
+ RandomX (Used by Monero)
+Is heavily CPU-dependent, as it doesn't translate onto the GPU that well, and it works by using Just-In-Time(JIT) to create another psuedo-random program that can be mined as well. However, this uses all kinds of operations, like floating point, AES, and memory loads.