Why do we even try to do anything cool when Leslie Lamport seems to have already done it all? I wonder why he isn't making a blockchain or participating in the space...https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1027972126593015809 …
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Every few months, a new paper comes out claiming to obsolete proof-of-work with a clever byzantine consensus algorithm, but so far none of them have panned out. Perhaps not PoW but some element of unforgeable costliness is necessary. So many attempts at perpetual motion machines.
Yes, there are both a specific trust minimization (security) reasonsfor proof of work (Sybil resistance) and an unheralded economic reason -- trust-minimized money is, like other Veblen goods, unforgeably costly.
