Solana and the ecosystem have had a magical journey in 2021 when growing hundreds of times, the mechanism behind it is also one of the contributing factors in no small part. Join Weakhand to find out what Proof of History is? Why does it contribute to Solana’s success?
Overview of Proof Of History
Proof of History (calendar proof or POH) is a blockchain technique that supports validators participating in the network to authenticate transactions and create new blocks without knowing what previous blocks were like through timestamps. time).
Proof of History was first introduced by Anatoly Yakovenko, CEO of Solana, a decentralized blockchain platform with very fast transaction processing speed. Proof of History is part of the Solana blockchain’s reliability mechanism and has been applied in its architecture.
Many people still misunderstand Proof of History as a consensus mechanism similar to Proof of Work or Proof of Stake. However, this is precisely a technique created to solve problems related to mempools on PoW as well as PoS, increasing speed and reducing transaction fees.
How Proof Of History Works
The working mechanism of Proof of History (PoH) involves generating a long chain of random values that are timestamped and linked together based on certain cryptographic algorithms.
Each value is called a timestamp in the PoH chain. The timestamp is created using the SHA-256 algorithm, which is one of the most commonly used security algorithms today.
When a Solana validating node wants to create a new block, it uses one of the timestamps in the PoH chain, along with some other identifying information (e.g. digital signature), to create a “certificate”. ” (proof) for this new block. This certificate will be regularly distributed to all other Nodes on the network, so that everyone can verify the validity of this new block.
Thanks to the PoH mechanism, authenticating Nodes do not need to interact with each other to synchronize information about the time or order of transactions, while still ensuring the integrity of the system.
Advantages Of Proof Of History
The advantages of PoH are:
- Increase transaction processing speed: PoH can help speed up transaction processing by using information that cannot be changed, instead of having to go through the block mining process.
- Tsave energy: Proof of History consumes little energy because there is no need for complex mathematical calculations, no need to solve difficult problems.
- Ensure data integrity: Since PoH is based on available physical data, it will be difficult to attack and change transaction history.
- Ability of extension: Proof of History also allows for easier blockchain scaling, as there is no limit on block size and no set block size.
Disadvantages of Proof Of History
Although there are many advantages, PoH also has some disadvantages as follows:
- Dependence on external data sources: PoH must rely on external information such as time, price, and telecommunications network information to generate timestamps. If this information is inaccurate or affected by other noise, it can lead to compromise of the integrity of the blockchain.
- Duplication in data: PoH requires nodes in the network to use the same external data to generate accurate timestamps. If there are inconsistencies in data and calculations, the effectiveness of PoH may be reduced.
- Implementation complexity and cost: PoH implementation requires a high degree of technical complexity and can be costly, especially in implementing compatible data structures.
Is PoH Easy to Hack?
PoH is difficult to compromise because of its very good technology, however there are still some possibilities for PoH to be attacked:
- If external data, such as time or telecommunication network information, is altered or attacked by third parties, it can lead to a breakdown of the integrity of the PoH.
- If a group of consensus nodes is taken over or attacked by hackers, they can change the transaction history of the blockchain.
- If a large number of users use PoH to confirm their transactions, it is possible for denial of service (DoS) attacks or keyword attacks to cause problems to the blockchain.
- If PoH tokens are not evenly distributed or are mined centrally by some pools, it can lead to distributed attacks in the consensus system.
Development History of PoH and Solana
October 2017: Founded in San Francisco, Solana Labs began developing PoH.
September 2018: Solana Labs launches PoH testnet, with processing speed of thousands of transactions per second.
April 2019: Solana Labs and Serum DEX announce the development of a PoH version for Serum DEX.
March 2021: Solana Labs releases the official version of PoH, which is the main component of the Solana blockchain.
Which Wallet to Use to Store Sol
Currently there are many wallets supporting Solana storage, however OKX Wallet will be a wallet with many utilities and integrated on many different dApps. To download OKX Wallet, people can refer to the following steps:
- Access and download OKX Wallet here depending on the device you are using.
- Proceed to create a wallet and store the 12-digit passphase.
- Withdraw SOL from OKX exchange to wallet.
Summary
PoH has proven its capabilities when at one point Solana achieved a TPS figure of up to 7000. This is a very large number when compared to other PoS blockchains such as Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, etc. However, compared to the initial goal set, it is still quite modest, so this technology will still need a long time to develop in the future.
Above are the things you need to know about what Proof of History is. The Weakhand team hopes that through this article, everyone will better understand the mechanism and how Solana got to the top.
