Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Glossary

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

  • search-icon Clear Definitions
  • search-icon Practical
  • search-icon Technical
  • search-icon Related Terms

Proof of Capacity

1 min read
Pronunciation
[proof of kuh-pas-i-tee]
Analogy
Like reserving parking spots in a lottery: the more spots you allocate, the higher your chances of winning.
Definition
A consensus mechanism where mining power is determined by the amount of disk space a node allocates to storing precomputed ‘plots,’ enabling low‑energy block validation.
Key Points Intro
PoC leverages storage resources rather than CPU/GPU for consensus.
Key Points

Plotting: Precompute and store large datasets (“plots”) on disk.

Mining: Nodes scan plots for solutions rather than perform heavy hashing.

Energy efficiency: Low continuous power draw after plotting.

Scalability: Encourages use of large, cheap storage.

Example
Burstcoin miners plot terabytes of data and respond to challenges by scanning disks, consuming minimal CPU.
Technical Deep Dive
Challenge: hash of previous block and scoop number. Miner reads corresponding plot segment, computes scoop hash, and submits deadline. Shortest deadline wins block right.
Caveat
Initial plotting is resource‑intensive; disk health impacts returns.
Related Terms
PoW
PoS
Consensus

Proof of Capacity - Related Articles

No related articles for this term.