Crosslink and Possible Futures of Proof-of-Stake in Zcash
summary
Proposal claims Crosslink 2 gives deterministic finality by layering a stake-weighted BFT over the existing PoW chain, requiring a one‑third adversary bound and Sigma confirmations so finalized blocks sit about double current confirmation depth (roughly 20 blocks if current is 10). Security proofs fit on a few slides and safety holds under either best‑chain or BFT assumptions. Tools: simulator in Python (Simpy, PR mostly complete). Prototype: Zebra prototype planned, not for zcashd.
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chapters (32)
- 0:00Intro
- 0:45Acknowledgements
- 1:07What is a black chain?
- 3:10Open Economic Computation
- 4:54Why Proof-of-Stake, then?
- 8:31Why Hybrid PoW/Pos as a first step?
- 11:25Goals and Requirements - Uses Cases
- 13:37Q?: Will PoS impact ZEC?
- 13:57Q?: Crosslink a PoW alternative for other blockchains?
- 15:36Q?: Opinion on Etherum’s Whisk?
- 16:18Goals and Requirements - Stability/Security
- 19:03ECC’s Proposed Design
- 21:27Q?: Why focus on this?
- 22:45Simplified Motivation for Crosslink
- 25:20Crosslink
- 27:54What is a BFT protocol?
- 32:09Why do we need a BFT protocol?
- 34:17Security and Performance Goals of Crosslink
- 39:00Bounded Availability and Safety Mode
- 41:17Why retain Zcash’s PoW for now?
- 42:32Brief background on stake-weighted BFT
- 45:24Crosslink 2
- 46:37Q?: Crosslink paper?
- 47:15How does Crosslink 2* work?
- 53:33Security Assumptions
- 54:45Security Theorems for Log(fin)
- 56:01What’s Next?
- 57:30Q?: Zcashd/Zebrad Proof of Concept Status??
- 58:02Zebra Prototype
- 58:30Open design issues
- 59:54Plan to Prototype on Transient Testnests
- 1:00:42How to contribute?
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