Principle 6 of 10
Energy Proportionality
Energy expenditure must be proportional to useful computational work produced.
Proof-of-Work was the mechanism available in 2008 to make Sybil attacks costly without a trusted identity system. BFT consensus and Proof-of-Stake have been proven to achieve equivalent Byzantine fault tolerance with energy expenditure several orders of magnitude lower. Continuing to use PoW is a choice, not a necessity.
Scoring Rubric
| Score | Criteria |
|---|---|
| 7–10 | Non-PoW consensus; energy per transaction < 0.001 kWh; useful computation contributed by validators is verifiable. |
| 4–6 | PoS with no useful work component; energy per transaction < 0.01 kWh. |
| 0–3 | Proof-of-Work with no useful computation component. |
Data Sources
- Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF)
- CoinMetrics
- Validator self-reporting