A Template for Alternative Proof of Work for Cryptocurrencies

Many popular cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, form consensus through a method known as Proof of Work. Problematically, current implementations of Proof of Work require immense amounts of energy consumption, where a majority of this energy is spent solely on securing consensus. Our focus is not to directly decrease energy consumption, but to allow for more useful and pragmatic computation to come from Proof of Work, such that energy is saved by not running these computational tasks separately. In this paper, we create a template for Proof of Work protocols, such that if followed, can guarantee similar security assurances as to the Proof of Work present in Bitcoin. Secondarily, we also develop “useful” prototypes based on this template.