Verge mining

1.

POW: full name of proof of work

pos: proof of stake

both of them are the consensus mechanism of blockchain and the bookkeeping method of digital currency

the difference is:

1. POW mechanism: workload proof mechanism, that is, the proof of workload, is the requirement that must be met when generating a new transaction information (that is, a new block) to be added to the blockchain. In the blockchain network based on workload proof mechanism, the ability of nodes to obtain the correct numerical solution to generate blocks by calculating the numerical solution of random hash hash is the specific performance of node computing power

POS mechanism: the proof of rights and interests requires the certifier to provide a certain amount of ownership of cryptocurrency. The operation mode of the proof of rights and interests mechanism is that when creating a new block, the miners need to create a "currency right" transaction, and the transaction will send some coins to the miners themselves according to the preset proportion. According to the proportion and time of token owned by each node, the equity proof mechanism reces the mining difficulty of nodes proportionally according to the algorithm, so as to speed up the speed of searching for random numbers

extended materials:

the concept of bitcoin was first proposed by Nakamoto in 2009. According to Nakamoto's ideas, the open source software and the P2P network on it were designed and released. Bitcoin is a kind of P2P digital currency. Point to point transmission means a decentralized payment system

unlike most currencies, bitcoin does not rely on specific currency institutions. It is generated by a large number of calculations based on specific algorithms. Bitcoin economy uses the distributed database composed of many nodes in the whole P2P network to confirm and record all transactions, and uses the design of cryptography to ensure the security of all aspects of currency circulation. The decentralized nature and algorithm of P2P can ensure that it is impossible to artificially manipulate the value of bitcoin through mass proction

2. One of the characteristics of blockchain projects (especially public chains) is open source. Through open source code, to improve the credibility of the project, so that more people can participate. But the open source code also makes it easier for attackers to attack blockchain system. In the past two years, there have been a number of hacker attacks. Recently, the anonymous currency verge (xvg) was attacked again. The attacker locked a vulnerability in the xvg code, which allowed malicious miners to add false timestamps on the block, and then quickly dig out new blocks. In a few hours, the attacker obtained nearly $1.75 million worth of digital currency. Although the subsequent attack was successfully stopped, no one can guarantee whether the attacker will attack again in the future
of course, blockchain developers can also take some measures
one is to use professional code audit services,
the other is to understand the security coding specifications and take preventive measures
the security of cryptographic algorithm
with the development of quantum computer, it will bring great security threat to the current cryptosystem. Blockchain mainly relies on elliptic curve public key encryption algorithm to generate digital signature for secure transactions. Currently, the most commonly used ECDSA, RSA, DSA, etc. can not withstand quantum attacks in theory, and there will be greater risks. More and more researchers begin to pay attention to cryptographic algorithms that can resist quantum attacks
of course, in addition to changing the algorithm, there is another way to improve the security:
refer to bitcoin's treatment of public key address to rece the potential risk of public key disclosure. As users, especially bitcoin users, the balance after each transaction is stored in a new address to ensure that the public key of the address where bitcoin funds are stored is not leaked
security of consensus mechanism
the current consensus mechanisms include proof of work (POW), proof of stake (POS), delegated proof of stake (dpos), practical Byzantine fault tolerance (pbft), etc
POW faces 51% attack. Because POW depends on computing power, when the attacker has the advantage of computing power, the probability of finding a new block will be greater than that of other nodes. At this time, the attacker has the ability to cancel the existing transaction. It should be noted that even in this case, the attacker can only modify his own transaction, but not the transaction of other users (the attacker does not have the private key of other users)
in POS, attackers can only attack successfully when they hold more than 51% of the token, which is more difficult than 51% of the computing power in pow
in pbft, when the malicious nodes are less than 1 / 3 of the total nodes, the system is secure. Generally speaking, any consensus mechanism has its own conditions. As an attacker, we also need to consider that once the attack is successful, the value of the system will return to zero. At this time, the attacker does not get any other valuable return except destruction
for the designers of blockchain projects, they should understand the advantages and disadvantages of each consensus mechanism, so as to select an appropriate consensus mechanism or design a new consensus mechanism according to the needs of the scene
security of smart contract
smart contract has the advantages of low operation cost and low risk of human intervention, but if there are problems in the design of smart contract, it may bring great losses. In June 2016, the Dao, the most popular funding project of Ethereum, was attacked. The hacker obtained more than 3.5 million Ethereum coins, which later led to the bifurcation of Ethereum into Eth and etc
there are two aspects of the proposed measures:
one is to audit the security of smart contracts, and the other is to follow the principles of smart contract security development
the security development principles of smart contract are: be prepared for possible errors to ensure that the code can correctly handle the bugs and vulnerabilities; Release smart contracts carefully, do well in function test and security test, and fully consider the boundary; Keep smart contracts simple; Pay attention to the threat intelligence of blockchain and check and update in time; Be clear about the characteristics of blockchain, such as calling external contracts carefully
security of digital wallet
there are three main security risks in digital wallet: first, design defects. At the end of 2014, a user lost hundreds of digital assets e to a serious random number problem (repeated r value). Second, the digital wallet contains malicious code. Third, the loss of assets caused by the loss or damage of computers and mobile phones
there are four main countermeasures:
one is to ensure the randomness of the private key
the second is to verify the hash value before software installation to ensure that the digital wallet software has not been tampered with
the third is to use cold wallets
the fourth is to back up the private key.