Security via scarcity

A simple "one account, one vote" approach won't work in blockchain consensus. Pseudo-anonymity means that a malicious actor could have many accounts on the network

Blockchain consensus algorithms use a scarce resource to determine votes, like CPU cycles, cryptocurrency, hard drive space, etc

The more of the scarce resource that you have, the more voting power

Example

In blockchain consensus, a simple voting process won't work because it's easy for someone to create multiple accounts and control the ledger. To solve this problem, there is a concept called "scarce resource" at the core of blockchain consensus algorithms. This resource determines how many votes a person has.

For example, in proof-of-work consensus, the scarce resource is computational power, like CPU cycles. In proof-of-stake, the scarce resource is the blockchain cryptocurrency. And in proof of space, the scarce resource is the amount of storage space someone has.

The idea behind using a scarce resource is that it brings in economic principles like supply and demand. If someone wants to perform a 51 percent attack and control most of the hash rate in a proof-of-work network, they would have to buy a lot of CPUs or GPUs, which would drive up the cost. This makes it too expensive for someone to control the network.

This principle of security via scarcity is important because it prevents attackers from creating fake accounts to mess up governance or voting algorithms.