Effective Proof-of-Stake: A Novel Consensus Mechanism

Effective Proof-of-Stake is Harmony’s version of the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, aimed at both security and decentralisation.

What is Effective Proof-of-Stake?

Harmony has introduced its own improvised version of the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, which uses random state alternation to enable decentralisation. Its main purpose is to prevent large network participants from centralising power.

What is the Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism?

The PoS consensus mechanism is a way to create new blocks and prevent the problem of double counting. Cryptocurrency owners can bid to validate transactions and receive a reward.

Proof-of-stake is an alternative to proof-of-work, which requires miners to solve complex problems to create new blocks. Unlike proof-of-work, the complexity of creating blocks in a proof-of-stake network increases as the number of coins staked by a validator increases.

Let’s say you have 1% of the total number of coins in the network – then you should receive 1% of all proof-of-stake rewards.