Proof of Authority

Proof of Authority is designed to be a practical and effective solution, especially aimed at private blockchains. The term PoA was suggested by Gavin Wood, co-founder and former CTO of Ethereum. This consensus protocol has a marked difference compared to others such as PoW and PoS. This is because PoA takes advantage of real identities to allow validation within a blockchain. This means that validators put their real identity and reputation as a guarantee of transparency, a process that includes an arbitrary selection of such trusted validators. A totally different situation than PoW mining, but similar to the PoS participation scheme.

Moreover, PoA relies on a limited number of validators. This feature gives it a clear advantage, the high scalability of the blockchain, which has a positive impact in applications where speed is vital. In addition, it maintains a high level of access control of the blockchain in question, since only nodes allowed can participate.