What is PoS

In a proof-of-stake (PoS) system, miners are required to pledge a stake of cryptocurrency for a chance to be randomly chosen as a validator. 

What is a validator? What is it for? Please refer to the content: What is a Node / Validator

The process is just like a lottery whereby the more coins you stake, the better your odds. Unlike in PoW where miners are incentivized by block rewards (newly generated coins), validators who stake more are rewarded with higher rewards.

PoS is seen as a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly alternative to PoW, and is more secure against 51% attack. 

However, as the system favors entities with a higher number of tokens, PoS has drawn criticism for its potential to lead to centralization. 

Besides, it still involves mining, which does not solve the pain points of consensus in commercial applications. Prominent PoS platforms include Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL), and Tezos (XTZ).

You might also be interested in the following content:

• What is Consensus Mechanism?
• What is Sybil Attack?