52 - Ethereum PoW
Ethereum’s proof-of-work algorithm is called “Ethash” (previously known as Dagger-Hashimoto).
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The algorithm is formally defined as m = Hm ∧ n <= 2**256/Hd with (m, n) = PoW(Hn, Hn, d) where Hn is the new block’s header but without the nonce and mix-hash components; Hn is the nonce of the header; d is a large data set needed to compute the mixHash and Hd is the new block’s difficulty value
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PoW is the proof-of-work function which evaluates to an array with the first item being the mixHash and the second item being a pseudorandom number cryptographically dependent on H and d.
- Provides Sybil consensus resistance
- Technically referred to as Ethhash
- (m, n) = PoW(Hn, Hn, d)
- m = Hm ∧ N <= 2**256/Hd
- N: Nonce, Hd - Difficulty
- m: Mix hash, d: data set
- A certain amount of work is required before the miner can mine the block