Stop Boiling the Oceans

A Review on Energy Efficient Proof of Work Alternatives

Student report (2019)

Authors

M.R. Comans Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
O.N. de Haas Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
R. Jongerius Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
D.A.J. Oudejans Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
E. de Smidt Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Contributors

Z. Erkin Cyber Security - EEMCS (supervisor 1)
P.R. Zimmermann Cyber Security - EEMCS (supervisor 2)
Faculty
Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
Copyright: © 2019 Martijn Comans, Olav de Haas, Ricardo Jongerius, Daan Oudejans, Emiel de Smidt
More Info
expand_more

Published Date

22-06-2019

Language

English

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Faculty

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Abstract

Bitcoin’s underlying consensus algorithm, Proof of Work, is of inefficient nature. Due to the sheer size that Bitcoin has grown to over the recent years, power consumption has increased so much that the Bitcoin network has been estimated to consume more power than the whole country of Ireland. This paper investigates several alternatives to the Proof of Work consensus algorithm, with a focus on energy efficiency. We found permissioned and permissionless consensus algorithms that offer solutions that consume significantly less energy than Proof of Work.