> Because the rewards for mining new blocks, and the fees for including transactions in blocks, [...] whatever Gini coefficient the systems starts out with will always increase
That doesn't follow at all. If everyone staked their coins and nobody ever bought or sold, the distribution would remain constant over time. In reality, coins do trade, and this causes diffusion. Coin ownership can decentralize over time.
In practice, proof-of-stake is better for distributing ownership than proof-of-work, because the block rewards (new issuance) go to a wider set of participants. Staking can be done by anyone, while mining profitably requires a specialized operation with large upfront capital costs.
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Finally, be wary of anyone quoting Gini coefficients for blockchains. Gini only makes sense if calculated per person. If you calculate Gini from on-chain address balances, you get numbers that are wildly off. See https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/07/29/gini.html
> Because the rewards for mining new blocks, and the fees for including transactions in blocks, [...] whatever Gini coefficient the systems starts out with will always increase
That doesn't follow at all. If everyone staked their coins and nobody ever bought or sold, the distribution would remain constant over time. In reality, coins do trade, and this causes diffusion. Coin ownership can decentralize over time.
In practice, proof-of-stake is better for distributing ownership than proof-of-work, because the block rewards (new issuance) go to a wider set of participants. Staking can be done by anyone, while mining profitably requires a specialized operation with large upfront capital costs.
--
Finally, be wary of anyone quoting Gini coefficients for blockchains. Gini only makes sense if calculated per person. If you calculate Gini from on-chain address balances, you get numbers that are wildly off. See https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/07/29/gini.html