[arcticbull]

I would argue that proof-of-work and proof-of-stake converge to the same thing, at the limit.

In the proof-of-work model, a few folks make a lot of money (either by being in the right forum in 2009, rugging a community or lord forbid by actually doing something productive for society). These folks then go and buy shares in a mining pool using the PoW coin. These shares are basically the same as staked coins. They can go back and un-stake them at any time by selling. As owners of the pool, their largesse grows as transactions are validating and block reward accrues conceptually to them.

This is conceptually identical to a proof-of-stake system where a few folks make a lot of money (either by being in the right forum in 2013, rugging a community, participating in a presale, or lord forbid, doing something useful for society). These folks then stake their tokens. As stakers, their largesse grows as transactions are validated and staking reward accrues to them.

[tromp]

> In the proof-of-work model, a few folks make a lot of money

That's more a consequence of the poor emission curves that were chosen in the past. Practically no-one has made money on a linear emission PoW coin.

> These folks then go and buy shares in a mining pool using the PoW coin.

The mining pool sharing business is fraught with scams. Most bona fide pools require miners to operate their own rigs.

[arcticbull]

If it's a currency they can earn it in a variety of ways. Money has intrinsic economy of scale and pools all by itself.