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by lottin 1843 days ago
Costly doesn't mean that it has to waste actual resources. The chance of winning a block could be made to be proportional to the amount of bitcoin deposited into some smart contract, instead of proportional to the amount of electricity wasted. The outcome would be exactly the same, and nothing would be wasted.
2 comments

From my short life as a tech guy, I have already realized that there is no 100% secure system. Companies try to hide information and avoid leakages; complicated systems of governance try to avoid malpractices while minimizing bad actors. In the end, it is always a dance between attackers and defenders. Bitcoin has the dumbest way of protecting itself from attackers. But by being the dumbest way, it is also the most predictable. It is like instead of coming up with sophisticated methods of protection that no one knows its weaknesses on the long run, Bitcoin only focuses on building a bigger wall. And that's why I feel more confident.
Sounds like you just reinvented Ethereum proof of stake :)