I have been holding a big bag of ETN since 9 cents. I was wondering what would the be benefits and drawbacks if ETN was a PoS coin?
Futhermore, would there be any benefit for ETN to allow users with lets say >10K ETN to act as mininodes to increase the speed and security of ETN?
Not an experienced tech person, so go easy! 
-T
I think Proof of Stake is the best model in crypto. It would be useful but the mining is helping the unbanked get established so there is that aspect to consider.
Proof of Stake (PoS) is a really great model, but I think the Instant Payment System is taking its place in a way. Transactions will be handled the system at great speed, but at the cost of true blockchain-style security.
Electroneum’s headquarters will now effectively become the only master node in this case, which basically makes a decentralized technology centralized again. However, they are not truly a master node, but rather a hybrid entity, since all transactions will still need to be processed by the broader blockchain mining community in due time. The instant payment system will only act as a sort-of easy-to-use front end to blockchain’s ugly code, but what happens behind the scenes will still be secure.
And of course, people can still use ETN without ever touching Electroneum’s servers, although at the cost of transaction speed.
I agree with @Mulder that proof-of-work mining is helping the unbanked get traction in crypto. But one also needs to consider that ASICs are dominating the ETN mining space at the moment, which themselves cost a couple hundred bucks each, and kind-of eliminates the small third-world players who can’t afford ASICs.
The thing about the unbanked mining is, they’re mining from the phone, which is still just simulated so…I don’t think it would affect anything if it were to change to PoS.
PoS means you have to have coins to get a staking reward so it doesn’t help the unbanked - they still need a way to get the coins.
Well I think that would have been true for mining a few weeks to months ago when GPU mining was relevant. At the moment what powers the network are ASIC mining, so it increased the difficulty way too much for the unbanked to actually mine from their own hardware.
I’m not exactly sure where the mobile mining coins are coming from, but is premined coins already so it does nothing to power the network. They’re already able to get coins from their phone so that is how they’re getting their coins. For the most part, it wont be from their mining rig.
As for staking, I guess it really doesn’t make much sense either if the coins they have are only from their mobile phones, which doesn’t really add up enough to help them stake.
For those who purchase the coins from the exchange, those guys could stake. When it comes to PoW, it is no where as relevant for the unbanked to mine as it is for them to stake.
Exactly, i meant for us westerners that bought bags of ETN off ETN, we should be rewarded for staking while ETN gains mass adoption with the unbanked.
-T
You’re right, I think it would benefit us to keep staking and running the network while the unbanked adopts it. But of course I don’t completely know how everything is done currently, so who knwos! I will just have to trust the process.
How would the unbanked get coins if there were no mining on phones? I realize its not real mining as such but the point being how they get some coins to start off the economy?
Only way right now is on the phone and they could already do that. Which brings back the point that Proof of Work doesn’t work with them at this moment. I could be wrong, but I think they’d be burning more electricity to mine one coin than they would to earn it.
Instead, what they will be doing is get work and paid digital currency to help circulate the coin to create an economy of usage.
I didn’t think the Mining was much of a drain on a device. The phones are usually on anyway so its not like they are paying much extra right? I know ETN is looking at cloud mining too so the phone doesn’t always need to be on. I like PoS. As an Ark holder I love it, but the idea to let the unbanked mine the coins is the back bone of the strategy to start off in those low income countries. The idea they can just get work and be paid in digital currency doesn’t make as much sense to me given there is likely no work to begin with. Not to say that won’t work in the long term but I don’t see it starting up before they have any coins to begin with.
I’m not sure if you’re understanding me, but phone mining doesn’t have much to do with Proof of Work.
Its an entity of its own. It has nothing to do with network security, because all it is is an air drop. It is a marketing tool to get coins in people’s hands therefore it is absolutely free.
PoW work is done on mining hardwares and your phone does none of that. Those are just free coins so when we talk about PoW you have to leave the mobile mining out of the equation because it is providing nothing to the network.
When cloud mining comes out, it is still just airdropping coins and still a marketing tool for accessibility.
Right I get that totally but the central issue is how to get the coins into the hands of the unbanked . That seems to be the central strategy to grow the outreach of the coin right now. I suppose ETN can just give away the coins but even if the phone mining isn’t real mining it gives the appearance of mining to give some value to the coins. I would personally love it if etn moved to PoS but the strategy they have doesn’t seem to make it the best choice so far with getting into those poorer areas. If ETN decided to abandon that strategy of the unbanked they would be just like other coins out there competing in the same areas mostly in places that had money and access to exchanges etc.
Yeah I’m not disagreeing with the mobile mining at all. It’s a magnificent strategy. I don’t really have too much of an opinion on if PoS would be better than PoW or not, but it does to me seem to make sense.
The unbanked wouldn’t be the one staking it obviously because they won’t have much of the coins.
@thejahcoop mentioned earlier that it would be us, that would be supplying the power through network weight. I don’t know how good that would be, but its just an idea. 
Yeah it’s tricky to find the right balance I think and I am sure the guys at ETN know that. Proof of work is a power hog and not environmentally friendly and I think that will be a big problem with bitcoin in time as more people will be asking why are we doing this when we can just use PoS and get some small interest without leaving our gear turned on. If there was another marketing strategy to get the coins out to the unbanked areas we need to have a think what that can be. If we came up with a cool strategy to do that in some of the failing economies we could easily move to PoS I think but do we want another hard fork… when things are working you might not want to do that - it needs to be stable.
PoS will improve the speed but will decrease security and decentralization. PoW is still the best way to secure the network transactions. The instant payment system could match lightning network.
