From PoS to dBFT: A Brief Review of Consensus Protocols

Although the blockchain and crypto communities remain united around the ideology of blockchain and its world-changing potential, there is still one issue which proves to be as divisive as a hard fork - consensus protocols.

Although proof-of-work is still the protocol of choice for Bitcoin and many others, the debate rages over proof-of-stake, along with other emerging consensus protocols.

The granddaddy of consensus protocols and the brainchild of Satoshi, the proof-of-work protocol involves block miners solving complex cryptographic puzzles, for which they receive rewards in the form of coins or tokens.

Bitcoin, Litecoin, Zcash and Ethereum Classic, among others - PoW is still the most popular consensus protocol.

PoS consumes less energy than PoW. PoS also actively penalizes dishonesty, deterring fraudulent behavior among validators.

As the validating nodes are not contributing computational power - known as the "Nothing-at-stake" problem - there is an increased risk that PoS blockchains could see more forks than in PoW. Additionally, PoS favors those with the most coins, which also promotes centralization as the richer holders can stake more.

We must remember that this is not a strict dichotomy - PoW and PoS are not the only consensus models.

Delegated PoS. Delegated PoS was invented by Daniel Larimer, co-founder of Steemit and CTO of EOS, which both use dPoS. Here, the network votes for 'Witnesses,' who reach the consensus to add the next block.

"dBFT is invented by NEO and has proved to work well. It is a consensus algorithm developed with perfect finality, meaning that all transactions are 100 percent final after the first confirmation. The blockchain cannot fork with dBFT, and high-value chained transactions are trivial and executed much faster. It is built with regulatory and business use cases in mind."

At least for now, there is no consensus on the right consensus protocol.