[CuriousCosmic]

> I can see the argument against proof-of-stake, doesn't your quantity of tokens increase without doing anything?

It depends.

With Algorand for example where staking is "fully automated" and you don't actually even have to be online to stake or have delegated to an online party? Then yes.

With Ethereum where you run a node secured with your stake? No. You have to maintain a staking node and mitigate potential threats/failure modes which would lead to downtime. It's kinda like being paid out for an SLA. If you can't maintain uptime and correct functioning, you don't get paid and potentially you owe money. Now if you outsource the operation of a staking node, it's still the same situation but you are just outsourcing to "the cloud" or someone else.

With Cardano where you have stake pool operators and delegators? Also no. If you run a stake pool, you essentially are in the same situation as with Ethereum. You have an SLA target of practically 100% and get penalised for failing to meet it. However for delegates (people who assign their stake rather than run a pool themselves), it's still no just "money go up". You are being paid for picking reliable, functional pools and voting with your stake that they should be trusted. And that is a job that doesn't just stop once you pick a pool, you still need to monitor the pool to verify that they are performing. And it's lower risk but there is no assurance that your funds would continue to increase unless you do your job and pick pools that operate correctly and reliably.

Those cover the big variants of Proof of stake that I am aware of.