What is proof of work?

It is a system that requires a practical yet significant amount of effort to prevent malicious and pointless use of computing power, like sending spam emails.

The Long Explanation

Originally proposed as an anti-spam feature to prevent denial-of-service attacks (DoS), Proof of work (PoW) is now used as a security system for cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum, to oversee transactions.

To keep financial transactions secure, the Proof of Work (PoW) system makes people, called “miners”,  solve complex puzzles using energy-consuming machines. This then allows them to add a verified transaction block to the blockchain, for which they receive a predetermined transaction fee or new tokens as a reward.

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