✅ From Mining to Staking: You've Made the Switch
Master PoS concepts and understand why Ethereum switched to this greener consensus
Your Progress
0 / 5 completed🎓 Key Takeaways
Congratulations! You've learned about Proof of Stake, a revolutionary consensus mechanism that secures blockchains through economic incentives rather than computational work.
🎯 What You've Learned
Energy Efficiency
PoS uses ~99.95% less energy than PoW by eliminating computational mining.
Economic Security
Validators stake their own crypto as collateral, aligning financial incentives with network health.
Weighted Selection
Validators are chosen based on stake size, creating fair probabilistic selection.
Slashing Mechanism
Malicious validators are punished by losing stake, deterring attacks.
🆚 PoW vs PoS Comparison
| Aspect | Proof of Work | Proof of Stake |
|---|---|---|
| Resource | Computational Power | Cryptocurrency Stake |
| Energy Use | Very High (~100 TWh/year) | Very Low (~0.01 TWh/year) |
| Entry Barrier | Expensive hardware | 32 ETH (~$50k-100k) |
| Block Time | ~10 minutes (Bitcoin) | ~12 seconds (Ethereum) |
| 51% Attack Cost | 51% hash rate | 51% of staked tokens (then slashed) |
| Penalty | Wasted electricity | Stake slashing |
🌍 Real-World Adoption
Transitioned from PoW to PoS, reducing energy consumption by 99.95% in "The Merge".
Built with PoS from the ground up using the Ouroboros protocol, designed for sustainability.
Uses Nominated PoS (NPoS) where nominators back validators, spreading risk and rewards.
📝 Test Your Knowledge
🔮 Looking Ahead
Future Developments
- •Sharding: Parallel chain processing for higher throughput
- •PBS: Proposer-Builder Separation to reduce MEV
- •DVT: Distributed Validator Technology for resilience
Open Questions
- •Long-term centralization risks from large staking pools
- •Optimal reward/penalty parameters for security
- •Balancing accessibility with decentralization