# Proof of Work must never be abandoned **URL:** \ **Category:** Technology\ **Created:** [September 7, 2026, 2:06am UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/proof-of-work-must-never-be-abandoned/57468 "2026-09-07T02:06:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EndoArchitect](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/endoarchitect/32/47918_2.png) [@EndoArchitect](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/EndoArchitect)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2026, 2:06am UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/proof-of-work-must-never-be-abandoned/57468/1 "2026-09-07T02:06:10Z")
1. The community should not discriminate against or overly scrutinize newcomers. The continuous influx of fresh voices is what drives true prosperity and growth within the ZEC ecosystem. 2. The core of ZEC is “Bitcoin with privacy,” not a privacy coin. Otherwise, why would its initial mechanism be identical to Bitcoin’s? Abandoning mining is a negation of the original intention. 3.No matter whether it’s cryptography or mathematics, they must all serve macroeconomics. Because a token is a social experiment whose purpose is to achieve financial equality, enable more people to use it, and ultimately realize higher value. At the end of the day, it is an economic behavior, or rather, a social behavior, while everything else is merely a tool to achieve these goals. When discussing community governance, we must not get the two mixed up. 4.The sociological goal of ZEC should be: long-term existence and widespread, easy usability. Its economic goal should be: high value. Its characteristic is optional privacy. Therefore, privacy cannot be the soul of ZEC; privacy is merely a feature of ZEC. This distinction must be fully affirmed. 5.In the near future, all current financial activities on the blockchain will perish, with only one type of token surviving as an exception: the energy coin. This is because only energy coins are created through minting; they are not code that can be endlessly replicated, altered, and innovated at zero cost. Instead, they are physical entities forged by mining farms with massive reset costs, making them tangible assets just like gold. 6.Currently, the ratio of code coins to energy coins on the blockchain exceeds 1 to 10,000, and it will only become greater in the near future. Why is this the case? Because energy coins are extremely difficult to create, requiring incomparable and immense time costs as well as reset costs. Creating a code coin becomes more advanced and cheaper by the day, whereas creating an energy coin carries increasingly higher reset costs and a lower probability of success day by day. 7.If ZEC abandons the PoW mechanism, it will self-destruct its core value. To abandon the hard-earned moat of reset costs and mining network effects—effectively crippling oneself—would reduce ZEC to a meme coin that can be infinitely replicated. Someone might say: “My privacy features are powerful.” Remember, privacy is merely a feature; on coin-launch platforms, every single meme coin claims to have all sorts of powerful features! A ZEC that abandons the PoW mechanism will throw itself into the competition against a massive sea of homogenized code coins, and ultimately perish. 8.Although PoW has its various flaws, we must not throw the baby out with the bathwater.And the key to success lies in doing hard (different) and right things. 9.The arguments in my previous post are also built on the premise of not changing PoW. Without this premise, any further discussion is completely pointless. 10.High costs are an inherent issue of PoW, but the current reorg limit has effectively mitigated 51% attacks. The focus of my previous post is: under the premise of Zcash’s 21-million hard cap, how to transition transaction fees from fluctuating in tandem with ZEC’s price pulses to being smoothly pegged against network-wide costs. These views may not necessarily be correct, but I am putting this direction out there to see if it might be of any help. 11.My views may not necessarily be correct, and I am putting them out there for everyone to discuss. Additionally, as English is not my native language, AI was used to assist with the translation, but the core viewpoints belong exclusively to the author. One last thing: do not be intimidated by Bitcoin’s might—Yahoo, Nokia, and Motorola were mighty too. ---
**Author:** ![strahncryptography](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/strahncryptography/32/46464_2.png) [@strahncryptography](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/strahncryptography)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2026, 5:31am UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/proof-of-work-must-never-be-abandoned/57468/2 "2026-09-07T05:31:49Z")
> [@EndoArchitect](#): > > would reduce ZEC to a meme coin that can be infinitely replicated Ethereum has been Proof-of-Stake entirely via the Beacon Chain for years. They are protected by the financial capital of nearly $100 billion. ---
**Author:** ![EndoArchitect](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/endoarchitect/32/47918_2.png) [@EndoArchitect](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/EndoArchitect)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2026, 5:38am UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/proof-of-work-must-never-be-abandoned/57468/3 "2026-09-07T05:38:52Z")
You are using individual deviations to refute general laws. ---
**Author:** ![strahncryptography](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/strahncryptography/32/46464_2.png) [@strahncryptography](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/strahncryptography)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2026, 5:39am UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/proof-of-work-must-never-be-abandoned/57468/4 "2026-09-07T05:39:16Z")
> [@EndoArchitect](#): > > Therefore, privacy cannot be the soul of ZEC; privacy is merely a feature of ZEC. This distinction must be fully affirmed. Riddle me this, genius. I take Zcash, and I remove privacy from it. The chain I am left with, “Zerocash without the Zero”, is a pre-SegWit, pre-Taproot, pre-Blockstream BitcoinScript. It does not support witness-based transactions, it doesn’t even support programmable inputs. It supports squarely NOTHING. It is worth less than Bitcoin and has lesser features than Bitcoin. What do you propose one does with that? > [@EndoArchitect](#): > > In the near future, all current financial activities on the blockchain will perish, with only one type of token surviving as an exception: the energy coin. This is because only energy coins are created through minting; they are not code that can be endlessly replicated, altered, and innovated at zero cost. You do know that it takes one fork to destroy or copy energy based coins? It depends on the proportion of people SPENDING energy to verify coins. The people say Abracadabra, let SHA256 become MD4, and poof! Your “energy coins are broken”. On the other hand, PoS requires immense financial capital. ---
**Author:** ![EndoArchitect](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/endoarchitect/32/47918_2.png) [@EndoArchitect](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/EndoArchitect)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2026, 5:41am UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/proof-of-work-must-never-be-abandoned/57468/5 "2026-09-07T05:41:14Z")
I said the weather forecast is accurate, and you replied that yesterday’s forecast was inaccurate, therefore weather forecasts are inaccurate. That is your logic. ---
**Author:** ![strahncryptography](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/strahncryptography/32/46464_2.png) [@strahncryptography](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/strahncryptography)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2026, 5:42am UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/proof-of-work-must-never-be-abandoned/57468/6 "2026-09-07T05:42:26Z")
… What? Did I invoke any precedents? Are you even reading what I typed? ---
**Author:** ![strahncryptography](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/strahncryptography/32/46464_2.png) [@strahncryptography](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/strahncryptography)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2026, 5:43am UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/proof-of-work-must-never-be-abandoned/57468/7 "2026-09-07T05:43:41Z")
Not to mention that the logic is indeed correct. If yesterday’s weather forecast was inaccurate, then today’s weather forecast is not reliable either. The same goes in trading: past gains or losses are not indicative of the future EVEN IF they appear to be correct. ---
**Author:** ![EndoArchitect](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/endoarchitect/32/47918_2.png) [@EndoArchitect](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/EndoArchitect)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2026, 5:50am UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/proof-of-work-must-never-be-abandoned/57468/8 "2026-09-07T05:50:49Z")
Zcash can abandon PoW; that is fine, and it is not up to me to decide. But the outcome is not up to you to decide either. ---
**Author:** ![strahncryptography](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/strahncryptography/32/46464_2.png) [@strahncryptography](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/strahncryptography)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2026, 5:53am UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/proof-of-work-must-never-be-abandoned/57468/9 "2026-09-07T05:53:24Z")
??? I did not start Crosslink, I did not start Tachyon, I never claim to SUPPORT PoS, what are you even on? Go argue with Sean Bowe or Mark from Shielded Labs (who the Winklevosses recently invested in), they are the drivers of the PoS change. Here: [Crosslink: Incentivized Feature Net](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/crosslink-incentivized-feature-net/55210) ---
**Author:** ![Lowo88](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/lowo88/32/37996_2.png) [@Lowo88](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/Lowo88)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2026, 3:38pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/proof-of-work-must-never-be-abandoned/57468/10 "2026-09-07T15:38:49Z")
POS is good for long term we just need a privacy stable coin. I say privacy so it can reflect the paper money we have now. The stable will help with not putting too much on the 21m cap Zcash has as well. POS helps from money always going in and out should make the price more stable if the whales not always selling larger amounts at once rewards come inn. ---
**Author:** ![br33zybail](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/br33zybail/32/45792_2.png) [@br33zybail](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/br33zybail)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2026, 12:16am UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/proof-of-work-must-never-be-abandoned/57468/11 "2026-09-08T00:16:07Z")
POW is indeed important, I agree. The current iteration with Crosslink that has POS finality on top of POW is an elegant solution in my opinion. Whether the market & wider builder community agrees, is a different story, but I think they generally do. ---
**Author:** ![EndoArchitect](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/endoarchitect/32/47918_2.png) [@EndoArchitect](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/EndoArchitect)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2026, 2:24am UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/proof-of-work-must-never-be-abandoned/57468/12 "2026-09-08T02:24:44Z")
Here is another article of mine for your discussion. Under the Proof of Work (PoW) framework, this piece explores how skyrocketing token prices create a fee-based crowding-out effect for regular users. It also presents several conceptual approaches to ensuring long-term network security once the 21-million token supply is fully minted. Specifically, I propose anchoring transaction fee structures to network production costs to guarantee miner sustainability.This serves as a high-level conceptual framework open for community feedback and debate.Disclaimer: English is not my native language. While this text was translated with the assistance of artificial intelligence, all core perspectives belong entirely to the author. [[ZIP Idea] Endogenous Adaptive Fee Mechanism via Monthly Weighted Productive Costs and Randomized Interval Verification](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zip-idea-endogenous-adaptive-fee-mechanism-via-monthly-weighted-productive-costs-and-randomized-interval-verification/57447) ---
**Author:** ![EndoArchitect](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/endoarchitect/32/47918_2.png) [@EndoArchitect](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/EndoArchitect)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2026, 2:30am UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/proof-of-work-must-never-be-abandoned/57468/13 "2026-09-08T02:30:14Z")
> [@br33zybail](#): > > POW is indeed important, I agree. The current iteration with Crosslink that has POS finality on top of POW is an elegant solution in my opinion. Whether the market & wider builder community agrees, is a different story, but I think they generally do. I completely agree with you. This iterative version—leveraging Crosslink to layer PoS finality on top of PoW—presents a much more advanced and robust architecture than Bitcoin’s traditional model. ---
**Author:** ![Siegfried](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/siegfried/32/43513_2.png) [@Siegfried](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/Siegfried)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2026, 2:10pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/proof-of-work-must-never-be-abandoned/57468/14 "2026-09-08T14:10:37Z")
I strongly support moving to PoS to address the security budget issue inherited from Bitcoin. I’ve made the argument on this forum before, so I’ll simply link it [here](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/proposed-nsm-update-long-term-security/54824/5). That said, I don’t understand parts of your original post. > [@EndoArchitect](#): > > Instead, they are physical entities forged by mining farms with massive reset costs, making them tangible assets just like gold. You must be using some kind of analogy here, because crypto mining produces nothing physical. > [@EndoArchitect](#): > > mining network effects What do you mean by this? PoS vs. PoW was debated extensively leading up to the Ethereum merge, and in my opinion, PoS decisively won that argument. The main counterargument for Zcash is memetic. But I’ve always believed that “encrypted Bitcoin” means making the original idea work, rather than copying its implementation details. We all agree that we want to fix Bitcoin’s issues with privacy, quantum resistance, scale, etc. Let’s also change the consensus mechanism to put the security budget on a sustainable footing. ---
**Author:** ![conradoplg](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/conradoplg/32/42878_2.png) [@conradoplg](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/conradoplg)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2026, 10:17pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/proof-of-work-must-never-be-abandoned/57468/15 "2026-09-08T22:17:45Z")
(Not speaking on behalf of ZF. As always) Zcash is not supposed to be “Bitcoin with privacy”. It was bootstrapped from Bitcoin just because that was the quickest approach at the time. PoW energy usage is absurd and we must get rid of it ASAP