Please find below my explanation on why Karma's PoW (in particular) is flawed and needs PoS to assist it.
This is prompted in part by this thread.
http://karmashares.com/forums/index.php/topic,218.msg780.html#msg780The main advantages of PoS are:
1. The network is more secure (I will elaborate on this under the heading - "why Karma's PoW in particular is dangerously weak");
2. The network costs far less to run (I'd call "saving the planet" good karma); and
3. It encourages people to take their Karma off exchanges unless they plan on selling it in the near future. There are billions of Karma sitting on exchanges, probably billions more not on the market just sitting in the exchanges accounts. I don't like concentrations of Karma because it won't take much in the wrong hands to crash its price.
The main disadvantages of going to PoS are:
1. It could be completely screwed up like with Whitecoin. They tried to transition to PoS but ended up with a low hash rate PoW system which was attacked (I note it was a PoW weakness attack not PoS).
2. People with mining rigs that don't want to buy coins can no longer mine for them. People can mine other coins and then purchase Karma however some people will be unwilling to take this extra step. Mining is becoming harder and harder for individuals so I think this point will become less valid over time.
Why Karma's PoW in particular is dangerously weak.1. The table below shows that a large amount of Karma is needed to protect the network and demonstrates how the security of the network is getting weaker quickly. The network security is strongly correlated with the rewards under PoW. The gain from an attack is based on two things. The amount of currency currently on the market (seeking to buy the coin) for an instant reward and the total market value of the coin. Naturally therefore the percentage of coins used to secure the network every day is a strong indicator of security, it also allows a much smaller coin to be compared to a larger coin by ignoring market cap (obviously Bitcoin/Litcoin etc are far more secure than Karma due to their comparative sizes).
Currency | Cost of securing the network for 24 hours | Coin supply | Percent of coins used to secure network every day | Percentage under 2% PoS |
Litecoin | 29,700 | 29,092,817
| 0.1021% | 0.0055% |
Karma (now) | 158,400,000 | 55,754,094,065 | 0.2841% | 0.0055% |
Karma (in a few weeks) | 50,400,000
| 58,250,000,000
| 0.0865% | 0.0055% |
Karma (in 85 days) | 28,800,000
| 61,750,000,000
| 0.0466% | 0.0055% |
Karma (in 155 days) | 14,400,000 | 63,750,000,000 | 0.0226% | 0.0055% |
I believe October 2015 is the first reward halving for Litecoin, making Karma 1/4 as secure as Litecoin even if Karma had the same market cap as Litcoin after the end of the 155 days until then. As you can see from the table above Karma is only getting more insecure over time due to PoW rewards decreasing. PoS will not only be more secure, it will cost 75% less in Karma (not to mention electricity) to secure the network. After the table above Karma will get weaker and weaker with the number of coins being used to protect the network decreasing compared to the total supply. The reason I'm basing my analysis on Litecoin not DOGE (which is the other main currency Karma is based off and will almost mirror the comparative security of Karma) is because I'd prefer not to follow in the footsteps of a coin that was made as a joke.
2. A large portion of Karma's hashing power is in one pool, if this pool were taken offline or somebody even took control of it then it would make Karma an excellent target. I don't want to the write percentage of hashing power here because of just how bad it is. If somebody did take control of that pool to maliciously use it then Karma could be completely destroyed with ease because they would be able to maintain the attack for as long as they controlled the pool unless a white knight came to save Karma.
3. Karma does not have much hashing rate in total because the value of the coins is low. Unless Karma overtakes Bitcoin and all other PoW coins it will always suffer from this weakness. It is far more secure to be the biggest than the second biggest PoW coin because the hashing power can't simply be moved. Having said that as Karma's price increases it will be on more radars, which means the other weaknesses I've discussed will make it an excellent target.
Basically there are currently likely to be hundreds if not thousands of entities that have enough hashing power to take control of the Karma network which means they can create as many coins as they want, practically for free. The situation will get dramatically worse in 2 weeks, then again in 85 days, then again in 155 days. I think we should be looking to fix it well within the 85 days. One pool already has control of the network, aren't we just lucky nothing has happened yet?
Other notes on why PoS would be particularly strong for Karma compared to PoW which would be great selling points for Karma.1. Having PoS instead of PoW is good for the planet, you can't have a coin called Karma that uses so much electricity and creates so much landfill (those outdated ASICs have to go somewhere).
2. There is 8 billion Karma owned by Karmashares LLC available to protect the network. PoS will also allow Karmashares LLC to earn a return on that Karma without having to spend the principle which could have large impacts on prices.
Other comments/my suggestionI have not compared things like confirmation times or re-target difficulty which also impact on the security and utility of a coin because these are more subjective. They should of course be re-examined if a change were being made, it is unlikely the creators of DOGE put much thought into this. Exactly how the PoS works also needs to be carefully considered, I'd be in favour of people being required to leave their wallets open constantly or very regularly to earn interest so that coin age can't be used to make some Karma worth more than others under PoS.
My suggestion is to implement a joint PoS + PoW system that requires both requirements to be met for the transaction to be considered valid. I think the PoW component should be decreased until the cost reaches and is then is fixed at 20% of the cost of the PoS system given the environmental cost of securing a network is so high. This would allow the coin to be mine-able, environmentally friendly and secure. It would also make it the first coin (as far as I'm aware) with a PoW that increases over time (in line with the total number of Karma), although very slowly. I recommend against a PoS system which gives Karmashares instead of Karma because that over complicates things and people can't easily sell the Karmashares if they want to.
Chargin.