Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Glossary

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Proof of Spacetime

1 min read
Pronunciation
[proof of spays-time]
Analogy
Like periodic inspections of a vault to confirm your valuables remain inside over the rental period.
Definition
A protocol—used by Filecoin—where storage providers prove they continuously store a unique piece of data over time by generating sequential cryptographic proofs.
Key Points Intro
PoSt verifies long‑term data storage by issuing periodic proofs.
Key Points

Sealed sectors: Data encoded into sealed commitments.

PoSt challenge: Client requests proof for random sector segments.

Temporal dimension: Proofs chained over epochs.

On‑chain verification: Smart contract checks PoSt validity.

Example
A Filecoin miner submits WindowPoSt every 24 hours, proving continued custody of stored data to earn block rewards.
Technical Deep Dive
Sector sealed with zk‑SNARK. For each WindowPoSt, verifier provides randomness seed, miner computes SNARK proof over subset of sector Merkle leaves, and on-chain actor verifies via `verifyPost()`.
Security Warning
Missing PoSt deadlines leads to penalties; ensure reliable scheduling.
Caveat
Proof generation is compute‑intensive; requires specialized hardware.
Related Terms
Proof of Retrievability
Filecoin
Merkle Tree

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