proof of burn

English

Noun

proof of burn (plural proofs of burn)

1. (cryptocurrencies) A process for verification on a blockchain that requires the destruction (“burning”) of tokens.

   Coordinate terms: proof of work, proof of stake

   • 2015, David Lee Kuo Chuen, Handbook of Digital Currency: Bitcoin, Innovation, Financial Instruments, and Big Data, Academic Press, →ISBN, page 47:

     Proof of burn is used to destroy (burn) coins. To burn bitcoins means to send those bitcoins to a verifiable yet nonspendable address.

   • 2017, David Lee Kuo Chuen, Robert H. Deng, editors, Handbook of Blockchain, Digital Finance, and Inclusion, volume 1, Academic Press, →ISBN, page 151:

     The third approach to ensure the integrity of a blockchain is proof of burn, first used by Counterparty. The Counterparty tokens, XCP, were distributed proportionally to everyone who destroyed bitcoins by sending them to an unrecoverable address during the proof-of-burn period in January 2014, see counterparty.io.