Evaluation of Green Alternatives for Blockchain Proof-of-Work (PoW) Approach

Annals of Emerging Technologies in Computing

article

Miraz, Mahdi H.¹  Excell, Peter S.²  Sobayel, Khan⁴ 

[1] Xiamen University Malaysia;Wrexham Glyndŵr University;The Chinese University of Hong Kong;The National University of Malaysia

关键词: Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC);    Blockchain;    Blockchain mining;    Carbon footprint;    Green computing;    Greenhouse gas emission (GHGE);    Information and communication technology (ICT);    Proof-of-Stake (PoS);    Proof-of-Work (PoW);   

DOI  :  10.33166/AETiC.2021.04.005

学科分类：电子与电气工程

来源: International Association for Educators and Researchers (IAER)

【 摘 要 】

Following the footprints of Bitcoins, many other cryptocurrencies were developed mostly adopting the same or similar Proof-of-Work (PoW) approach. Since completing the PoW puzzle requires extremely high computing power, consuming a vast amount of electricity, PoW has been strongly criticised for its antithetic stand against the notion of green computing. Use of application-specific hardware, particularly application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) has further fuelled the debate, as these devices are of no use once they become “legacy” and hence obsolete to compete in the mining race, thus contributing to electronics waste. Therefore, this paper surveys the currently available alternative approaches to PoW and evaluates their applicability - especially their appropriateness in terms of greenness.

【 授权许可】

CC BY