> To secure a decentralized blockchain, you need the work to be provably wasteful.
But why does it have to be wasteful?
As I understand it you just need a hard enough computation to prevent the 51% problem.
Obviously if the goal was to compute something which had real value all the failed attempts would count as “provably wasteful” so would seem to fit the criteria.
> As I understand it you just need a hard enough computation to prevent the 51% problem.
that's not the case, in fact hardness is barely a requirement provided you can scale up the number of sub-tasks as much as you need
When the work is provably wasteful, the model simplifies a great deal. Usefulness of the work complicates the dynamics and makes many scenarios plausible that otherwise wouldn't. The game theory then doesn't follow that you'd choose a currency with extra elements of instability.
I don't think there's enough evidence to make the hard requirement that it HAS to be provably wasteful. It's just that you introduce a bunch on extra, usually intractable, problems when the work is useful.
But why does it have to be wasteful?
As I understand it you just need a hard enough computation to prevent the 51% problem.
Obviously if the goal was to compute something which had real value all the failed attempts would count as “provably wasteful” so would seem to fit the criteria.