Proof of Sincerity: A New Lightweight Consensus Approach for Mobile Blockchains

Abstract

In this paper, we present the idea of proof of sincerity for a new consensus method for mobile-user-friendly blockchains. Ever since the birth of Bitcoin, there have been many distributed consensus methods studied to replace the central (or third-party) trusts to protect the integrity of the distributed ledgers. Existing methods show pros and cons but none of them showed a proper balance between the imbalance of wealth and the security of the ledgers. In proof of sincerity, by allowing each and every entity even with smaller computing power to get rewarded by mining, we can effectively prevent the extreme imbalance of the wealth (often caused by the mining that is dominated by a small number of huge resource owners). At the same time, by maintaining the appropriate level of sincerity in terms of the combination of the number of miners and the level of each mining work, we can effectively maintain the security level of the distributed ledgers.