Interesting

Proof of Vitalik creates bulletproof investments - either you make money or there is a PoW fork!

"The people who use Ethereum have collectively decided to reinterpret the immutable history in such a way that produces a better outcome for almost everyone."

This is what people don't seem to understand around their subreddits... I can't understand the whole panic selling price changes that happened after the Dao "hack", either bitcoiners are really good at spreading FUD or just manipulation and weak hands. When will people learn that these cryptocurrencies aren't some "get rich quick" scheme. Time pays off.

Has anyone thought of using a decaying isotope as a physical proof of work? You could tag each transaction with the current state (neutron output) of the radioactive substance. Each transaction would have a unique number, each lower than the next.

Who needs ETH? This entire project is amazing! I can't get off Steemit to do actual work.... whats the point? LOL

I was initiated into ethereum due to the phrase "code is law" which I took to be the utopia of decentralisation. Unfortunately, I did find out the hard way that public opinion can cause reversal in an otherwise _deemed_ irreversible chain. The incident with the DAO brought me to my senses, but also instilled  fear that this has opened up a can of worms which regulatory authorities might jump at. Thereby negating the benefits of decentralisation using such a chain.

Some people confuse the map with the location. That's what I thought of what I read your explanation. This may also impact thinking about hard limits such as the number of mineable coins or the number of decimal points of precision. Ultimately, if enough people want it, it'll happen (either with a hard fork, rebranding, or voted for and agreed upon code change, etc).  To me, that's the beauty of crypto. A mechanism for determining consensus where each actor works in their own self interest which happens to align with the interests of the entire group, all without coercion.

I remember watching Bitcoin in March 2013 as consensus was reached around the world to prevent a true hard fork. It was amazing to see, and I've been hooked ever since.

Nicely explained, I'd like to read a similar explanation on proof of stake.

*CG*

Let's fry our power stations with help of Proof-of-Work xD

Interesting!

This article is invalid. Nakamoto consensus implies relative immutability, that is a block N deep in the chain is more immutable than that of block N+1 in the chain. In the proof of stake, the immutability is corrupted trivially, by all stake participants to sign-of multiple histories, or in some cases, to claim that all possible histories have in fact happened. PoS does not prevent this, and thus double spend can, and will occur.

There is also hybrid coins that can do both, pow and pos.

Thank you for pointing out 'public opinion'.

Immutability is not a God!

Doesn't the ethereum hard fork prove your point?  I understand it only "reversed" transactions involving the DAO but it is a reversal of sorts.

POW is not for creating Irreversibility.
POW is needed in order miners could trust each other. Trustlesness - what is POW for.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_fault_tolerance