Proof of Work (PoW)
A consensus method where miners burn computing power to earn the right to add blocks and deter cheating.
Proof of work secures a chain by making block creation expensive. Miners must find a hash below a target, which takes enormous trial and error. Faking the chain would mean redoing all that work faster than the honest network, which is wildly impractical.
Bitcoin introduced it and still relies on it. The strength is a long, battle-tested security record; the cost is heavy electricity use, which pushed Ethereum and others toward proof of stake.
Related terms
The process of competing with computing power to add new blocks and mint fresh coins under proof of work.
Proof of Stake (PoS)A consensus method where validators lock up coins as collateral instead of burning electricity to secure the chain.
Hash RateThe total computing power a proof-of-work network throws at mining, measured in hashes per second.
Consensus MechanismThe rules a decentralized network follows to agree on one valid history without trusting any central party.