19 lines
1007 B
Markdown
19 lines
1007 B
Markdown
# The three pillars of PoW
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## Asymmetry
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Easy to verify, hard to compute
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## Puzzle/Challenge
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Have to solve a very challenging(computationally) problem
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## Nonce
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A value used to vary inputs until the puzzle solution meets a requirement.
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# Common Puzzles/Challenges for PoW
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+ Bitcoin's SHA256:
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Find a nonce such that ```hash(block + nonce)``` starts with a specific number of zeros.
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This is usually only used for blockchains, hence there is the block. However, this could be used for other applications as well.
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+ ProgPoW:
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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.
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+ RandomX (Used by Monero)
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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.
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