Proof of work (POW) is a decentralized consensus mechanism that requires members of the network to put effort into solving an arbitrary mathematical puzzle in order to prevent anyone from gaming the system. Proof-of-Work is a method used by Bitcoin to control block creation and the state of the blockchain. It is a method for all Bitcoin network members to agree on the state of the blockchain and all Bitcoin transactions in an objective manner.
Proof-of-Work requires miners to make billions of numerical guesses in order to produce a legitimate block, and owing to the difficult adjustment, miners on average find one block every 10 minutes.
The Proof of Stake (POS) protocol is a class of consensus mechanism for blockchain that works by selecting validators in proportion to the number of holdings in the respective crypto. Proof-of-Stake (PoS) is developed and used by a few alternative crypto as an alternative to Proof-of-Work. Stakers—the PoS equivalent of miners—lock funds in a particular smart contract in the Proof-of-Stake architecture. When the network requires a new block, an algorithm provides a certain staker the right to publish the next block. The staker is chosen by a lottery based on each staker’s percentage of the total staked funds.
Unlike Proof of Work (PoW) protocols, POS systems do not encourage excessive amounts of energy consumption.
