Agarwal, Vaibhav ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5362-2936, Vardhan, Harsha, Kumar, Aniket and Tewari, Hitesh (2025) PoW++: An Energy Efficient Proof-of-Work Variant. In: 2025 7th International Conference on Blockchain Computing and Applications (BCCA). IEEE

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Abstract

Proof-of-Work (PoW) is a prominent consensus mechanism in blockchain technology, but its reliance on extensive computational power leads to significant resource wastage and high energy consumption. This intensive demand for computational resources often results in the centralization of mining power among a few entities capable of affording the necessary equipment, further exacerbated by geographical consolidation in areas with cheap electricity. Additionally, miners who fail to mine a block, experience substantial resource loss without any reward. In this paper, we introduce a novel consensus mechanism called PoW++ that aims to mitigate these challenges and also enhance mining efficiency through structured competition. The PoW++ mechanism introduces “Checkpoint Blocks”, which serve as a means to reward miners for their resource contributions, even if they opt to exit the mining race. PoW++ offers participants a comprehensive view of other miners’ progress in the blockfinding process. This visibility enables miners to make informed decisions about whether to continue or withdraw from a block race, optimizing their resource allocation. PoW++ introduces the concept of parallel chains, which allows miners to choose the chain with the highest success probability of mining a block at any given time, thus enhancing overall mining efficiency. To assess the earning potential of miners under each protocol we calculated and compared the “Rewards Per Miner”. Additionally, their energy consumption was compared using the hash rate and the number of hashes required to add a block. The mining efficiency and productivity of each miner were further evaluated by analyzing the “Number of Blocks Added Per Miner”. Finally, we calculate the “Efficiency Index” which shows that PoW++ is more efficient in converting block additions into rewards.

Item Type:	Book Section
Status:	Published
DOI:	10.1109/bcca66705.2025.11229519
Subjects:	T Technology > T Technology (General)
School/Department:	London Campus
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/15770

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