Inside Proof of Work

​Inside Proof of Work

​SubTopics to cover :

• ​SHA-256 and the random oracle assumption

• ​The puzzle: hash(header) < target

• ​Block arrival as a Poisson process

• ​Difficulty adjustment every 2016 blocks

• ​Merkle root

• ​Attacker catch-up probability (example: q = 0.1, z = 5)

​Questions

• ​Why does the random oracle assumption matter?

• ​Why does the simple attack model understate the risk?

• ​What happens as an attacker nears 50%?

​Agenda

• ​Member introduction (10 mins)

• ​Reading (10 mins)

• ​Paper discussion (1.5 hours)

• ​WIP (30 mins)

​Paper / source: [DESCRIPTION COMING SOON]

​Format

• ​Short introduction and context setting to start.

• ​A short walkthrough of the paper and its key ideas.

• ​Questions and discussion grounded in the original source.

• ​Moderator-led discussion with no promotions.

​Session Guides:

​Joshua Alana

​Blessing

​About Whitepaper Reading Club

​We are a community of founders, researchers, and builders across Singapore, Malaysia, San Francisco, Bangkok, New York, Lagos, Taipei, and Hong Kong. We meet in person every month to read, discuss, and pressure-test the latest blockchain papers, protocols, and technical ideas.

​Learn more: Website · Summaries · Calendar

​We create detailed, easy-to-understand summaries for each paper and have held 80+ sessions since June 2023, covering Account Abstraction, Parallel Chains, EIPs, the Bitcoin ecosystem, and AI x Crypto. We are ecosystem-agnostic, not for profit, and focused on projects with technical, product, or social innovation.