Proof-of-Personhood: Redemocratizing Permissionless Cryptocurrencies
Maria Borge, Eleftherios Kokoris-Kogias, Philipp Jovanovic, Linus Gasser, Nicolas Gailly, and Bryan Ford
EPFL
IEEE Security & Privacy on the Blockchain (IEEE S&B)
April 29, 2017
Abstract:
Permissionless blockchain-based cryptocurrencies commonly use proof-of-work
(PoW) or proof-of-stake (PoS) to ensure their security, e.g. to prevent double
spending attacks. However, both approaches have disadvantages: PoW leads to
massive amounts of wasted electricity and re-centralization, whereas major
stakeholders in PoS might be able to create a monopoly. In this work, we
propose proof-of-personhood (PoP), a mechanism that binds physical entities to
virtual identities in a way that enables accountability while preserving
anonymity. Afterwards we introduce PoPCoin, a new cryptocurrency, whose
consensus mechanism leverages PoP to eliminate the disadvantages of PoW and
PoS while ensuring security. PoPCoin leads to a continuously fair and
democratic wealth creation process which paves the way for an experimental
basic income infrastructure.
Paper:
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