Benefits of Proof of Work

 Proof of Work systems has many significant advantages. they are a perfect way of deterring spammers. If a reasonable amount of work is required for e.g. sending an email for each process, then most spammers will not have enough computing power to send a large number of unsolicited emails.

Moreover, Proof of Work frameworks can be used to provide protection for a network as a whole. This is the primary advantage of blockchains using a consensus system for the proof of work. If enough nodes compete to find a particular solution, then for any single bad actor or even a single group of bad actors, the computational power required to overwhelm and control a network becomes unachievable.

Proof of Work vs Proof of Stake

The Proof of Stake systems have the same purpose but the process is slightly different than in Proof of Work systems. There is no mathematical puzzle with the Proof of Stake. The creator of a new block, however, is chosen in a deterministic manner, based on their stake. 

The Proof of Stake includes validators instead of the miners. Some of their cryptos are locked up by validators as the stake in the ecosystem. The validators then bet on blocks they hope will be added next to the chain. When the block is inserted the validators will receive a block incentive equal to their stake. 

Evidence of Stake has some of the advantages over Proof of Service. Increased energy efficiency is the most important one. They tend to be much greener over the other one as it cuts down the energy-intensive mining process. The electricity consumed at the same time is only a fraction of that consumed in PoW.

Proof of Work Limitations

However, there are certain drawbacks or limitations associated with the Proof of Work, which can be described in detail as follows:

1) Huge Expenditures: There is a need for specialized computer hardware to run complicated algorithms for mining. The cost is also high and not affordable. In addition, the special mining pools need a massive amount of power to run, which further alleviates the cost.

2)  The uselessness of Computations: There is a lot of power required for the machines to generate a block by the miners. however, their estimates are not valid anywhere else, such as a company, science, or others. 

3) 51% Attack: A 51% attack is a Proof of Work attack by the majority of the group of users, who controls the majority of the mining power. The attackers come in complete power, where they can monopolize by creating blocks and receive rewards.