IACR News item: 14 January 2016
Tal Moran, Ilan Orlov
ePrint Report
We introduce a new cryptographic primitive: Proofs of Space-Time (PoSTs) and construct a practical protocol for implementing these proofs. A PoST allows a prover to convince a verifier that she spent a ``spacetime'' resource (storing data---space---over a period of time).
Formally, we define the PoST resource as a linear tradeoff between CPU work and space-time (under reasonable cost assumptions, a rational user will prefer to use the lower-cost space-time resource over CPU work).
Compared to a proof-of-work, a PoST requires less energy use, as the ``difficulty'' can be increased by extending the time period over which data is stored without increasing computation costs. Our definition is very similar to ``Proofs of Space'' [ePrint 2013/796, 2013/805] but, unlike the previous definitions, takes into account amortization attacks and storage duration. Moreover, our protocol uses a very different (and simpler) technique, making use of the fact that we explicitly allow a space-time tradeoff.
Compared to a proof-of-work, a PoST requires less energy use, as the ``difficulty'' can be increased by extending the time period over which data is stored without increasing computation costs. Our definition is very similar to ``Proofs of Space'' [ePrint 2013/796, 2013/805] but, unlike the previous definitions, takes into account amortization attacks and storage duration. Moreover, our protocol uses a very different (and simpler) technique, making use of the fact that we explicitly allow a space-time tradeoff.
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