Popular distributed ledger technology (DLT) systems using proof-of-work (PoW) for Sybil attack resistance have extreme energy requirements, drawing stern criticism from academia, businesses, and the media. DLT systems building on alternative consensus mechanisms, foremost proof-of-stake (PoS), aim to address this downside. In this paper, we take a first step towards comparing the energy requirements of such systems to understand whether they achieve this goal equally well. While multiple studies have been undertaken that analyze the energy demands of individual Blockchains, little comparative work has been done. We approach this research question by formalizing a basic consumption model for PoS blockchains. Applying this model to six archetypal blockchains generates three main findings: First, we confirm the concerns around the energy footprint of PoW by showing that Bitcoin's energy consumption exceeds the energy consumption of all PoS-based systems analyzed by at least three orders of magnitude. Second, we illustrate that there are significant differences in energy consumption among the PoSbased systems analyzed, with permissionless systems having an overall larger energy footprint. Third, we point out that the type of hardware that validators use has a considerable impact on whether PoS blockchains' energy consumption is comparable with or considerably larger than that of centralized, non-DLT systems.
翻译:使用Sybil攻击抗药性工作证明(PoW)的大众分配分类账(DLT)系统(DLT)系统使用Sybil攻击性抗药性工作证明(DLT)系统,具有极高的能源需求,从学术界、企业和媒体中引起严厉的批评。DLT系统建立在替代共识机制,首先是获取证明(POS)的基础上,旨在解决这一问题。在本文件中,我们迈出了第一步,比较这些系统的能源需求,以了解它们是否同样地实现了这一目标。虽然已经进行了多项研究,分析单个链条的能源需求,但比较工作却很少。我们通过将POS连锁的基本消费模式正规化来解决这一研究问题。将这一模型应用于六个老旧的条条条条条条条路形成三大结论:首先,我们通过显示Bitcoin的能源消耗超过所有以PoS为基础的系统的能源消耗量至少三个级,从而证实它们是否实现了这一目标。第二,我们指出,基于POS的系统在能源消耗上存在巨大的差异,我们指出,将这种类型的硬件与非中央级系统相比具有相当的高度的标准化。