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by EGreg 3114 days ago
If all you needed was a way to order transactions you would not need proof of work at all. Here for example is the PTN:

https://intercoin.org/technical.pdf

1 comments

First, a paper written three weeks ago of an unproven currency is a bit of stretch.

Second, I didn't say it was necessary to order transactions, I said that is what it is used for, which is correct. You are replying to a point that I didn't make.

You said proof of work is ABOUT ordering transactions. I was trying to say that it's not. It's used for other things: namely as a way to determine the next miner, like leader election in consensus protocols. It also adds a lot of computation on top of the transactions to show that the miner is heavily invested in the ecosystem and thus serves as an economic incentive. It has almost NOTHING to do with ordering transactions. Transactions are ordered by the blockchain, and everyone has to verify them anyway.
You do realize that the miners' purpose is to order transactions right?
Pretty sure it's not. Go ahead and prove it with a link.