Proof of Chance: A Lightweight Consensus Algorithm for the Internet of Things

This article is to propose a consensus algorithm, called Proof of Chance (PoCh), which is designed for the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The PoCh protocol is designed to be scalable and extensible, with a controllable conformance delay and low hardware and computation requirements. To reach a consensus, PoCh uses chance rather than computing power: 'if condition 1, I am a candidate; if condition 2, I am the miner.' During every consensus iteration, the condition 1 is updated, and a single miner is chosen using condition 2. Those conditions are randomized without the node generating any value and without assigning any weight to such value. The fault tolerance of PoCh is 5f/3 + 1, meaning that PoCh can successfully achieve consensus as long as more than 40% of nodes are functioning properly, compared to 50% in the Proof of Stake (PoS) protocol.