PROOFS OF WORK AND BREAD PUDDING PROTOCOLS (EXTENDED ABSTRACT)

We formalize the notion of a proof of work (POW). In many cryptographic protocols, a prover seeks to convince a verifier that she possesses knowledge of a secret or that a certain mathematical relation holds true. By contrast, in a POW, a prover demonstrates to a verifier that she has performed a certain amount of computational work in a specified interval of time. POWs have served as the basis of a number of security protocols in the literature, but have hitherto lacked careful characterization. In this paper, we offer definitions treating the notion of a POW and related concepts.

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