
Show HN: Equilibrium in Cryptoeconomic Networks - hosolmaz
https://solmaz.io/2019/04/20/equilibrium-cryptoeconomic-networks/
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jatsign
In other words, you won't get rich trying to mine bitcoin or other
cryptocurrencies from your home. Because if there's money to be made, many
others will jump in. To get rich, you'd need some advantage, like incredibly
low cost of power.

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seibelj
Proof of Stake currencies do not require more power than a desktop PC or
reasonably sized cloud server to run a node. Cosmos
([https://cosmos.network/](https://cosmos.network/)) is one such currency, and
Ethereum is moving to a PoS system.

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wyldfire
Proof of Stake is a great idea, Nano is one that does DPoS.

But the downside is that it doesn't provide an equitable distribution. IMO a
rare or periodic PoW 'burst' might be a good compromise there.

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DennisP
Seems to me it's at least as equitable as PoW. With either one, you get
returns in linear proportion to the resources you commit. To the extent that
miners have economies of scale, PoS actually does better.

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gcb0
but it distills nicely to a dichotomy of two terms that can easily be
discussed on forums by "investors" who do not understand the first thing about
the underlying tech they are buying into. So you will hear about it for a
while, as being the ultimate game changer no less.

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wyldfire
Back in the bad old days of only-just-emerging bitcoin ASICs, the equilibrium
was distorted by the long lead times for new parts and relatively few
suppliers. (For all I know, this might still be the case with new
algorithms/new manufacturing process/ASIC generation).

Another interesting thing to consider is that rational miners will often
consider applying their hashing power to the coin whose reward/block
time/difficulty/exchange rate factor provides the best return (among those
that share a PoW).

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wmf
The fact that hash rate doesn't go down much during halvings or during market
crashes indicates that mining is not in equilibrium. I don't think equilibrium
has ever been reached since ~2011.

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SilasX
Great economic analysis, but economic arguments (by themselves) shouldn't be
submitted as "Show HN".

