The Proof of Storage Consensus Mechanism
Proof of Storage (PoS) is a cryptographic mechanism that is mainly used to check the validity of a remote file. This is accomplished by transferring an encoded replica of the data to a server, which is then subjected to a challenge-response process to ensure the validity of the data. Moreover, this mechanism is typically employed when evaluating the effectiveness of a cloud storage server.
What Is Proof of Storage?
There are two types of participants in a network that uses PoS. One of them is referred to as a “prover,” while the other is known as a “verifier.” Provers are participants who are responsible for storing data, while verifiers “verify” whether the provers are storing data or not. Furthermore, verifiers assign challenges to provers who must answer with a proof based on the proof-of-storage mechanism in use.
There are a multitude of proof schemes that are derivatives of PoS, with each derivative having some key differences in their features. That said, they have a lot in common as well. Consequently, below are some of the properties that…
