It's more energy efficient,
and it carries an easier learning curve.
Miners are consuming a ton of energy, and this is giving a bad name to cryptocurrency. Whether you like it or not this is a very big issue for many, many people. It also creates a scaling problem once a cryptocurrency gets to Bitcoin or Ethereum type levels. This rate of consumption is bad news in my opinion, and I like that proof of stake basically destroys these issues. Now, you can confirm blocks with a tiny fraction of the energy and hardware that was once required. This will reflect well on DeepOnion as it becomes more environmentally friendly, and more cost effective to mint $Onions at home.
While only a small percentage of the population has the knowledge and resources to mine using POW, everyone can mint $Onions using proof of stake. Your grandma could learn to use Proof Of Stake this afternoon, and I think this will be beneficial for mainstream adoption. This is an easy way for newcomers to start earning passive income using just the laptop or desktop computer they already have, and without needing to learn the specifics of Proof of Work. The ability to earn income is always a plus when someone is considering a new investment. Imagine if instead earning paltry returns on dividend stocks new retirees were minting $Onions instead for their "golden years nest egg"?
It's more cost effective.
I've looked into mining on several occasions as it does fascinate me. However, I've run the numbers, and I just can't seem to make the financials of it make sense. Especially when you consider how quickly your hardware will become obsolete with the rising network hashrate, and the competition closing in everyday. You're not safe with an ASIC either. A coin can easily fork to create problems for your hardware essentially preventing you from ever making your investment back. That's not accounting for the cost of electricity, and the fact that you'll need to babysit your miners to make sure you're staying out of the red.
I'm also fairly certain you would actually make more money if you used the thousands of dollars you spent on a miner to just buy proof of stake coins. Between stakes and price appreciation most investors would definitely come out ahead this way. For me at least, that's the route I prefer to take as I don't like the risk associated with potentially owning a very expensive space heater within six months.
It creates holders, not income producers.
To combat the issue of rising hash rates and high electric bills many miners will simply mine whichever coin is most profitable for their hardware. They will then immediately dump that coin for the one they really want, but do not have the ability to mine themselves. This creates an environment full of users who don't care about DeepOnion, only their bottom line. Under a proof of stake model if you want to continue minting coins you need to hold your investment. This makes $Onions an asset to hold, and not something to dump on the market as soon as they appear in your wallet.
Additionally, if POS is the only way to mint new coins it pushes up the demand for the existing coins for those that would need to purchase them to begin staking. Removing the Proof Of Work aspect in my opinion gets rid of a good deal of these dumpers, and instead incentivizes holders who are there for the long haul.
Is POS too centralized though?
Many often criticize POS due to the "the rich get richer" appearance of the process. They believe that a POS system will become too centralized. However, I think this is a fallacy. Proof of work is also full of rich people getting richer. The average person would be hard pressed to turn a profit mining most top level currencies. They likely would not even be able to mine anything at all. I know I can't. There's too many other people with more money, more resources, better hardware, and too big of a head start. I can however mine using Proof Of Stake. While it may not be enough for you to make a hefty income every month it can be done. As such, I find this a poor excuse to not implement proof of stake algorithms on a coin.
If you're a miner who finds you have gotten into a coin too late to mine it you either upgrade your hardware or you find a lower competition coin. The exact same thing can be done with Proof Of Stake. You either purchase more coins so that you have a higher likelihood to stake or you purchase a less expensive coin where you have more power, and then you wait for it to appreciate in value. I'd prefer to search for an undervalued coin to secure a nice opportunity for myself later than to continuously upgrade hardware to support a model I feel is well, outdated.
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great post @michellerhey ive gotton massively into POS coins, they will be massive in 2018 and we will get the bonus of the staked coins when the market goes back onto a bull run
POS coins are my favorite, and I'm trying to slowly build up my bags while the prices are low. : D
yeah mate same, ive got a few bags im looking to get rid off but waiting for the markets to change to completely change my portfolio haha