The basic concept of proof-of-diversity is simple. Verifiers take turns producing blocks in a circular order. Some simple rules ensure that verifiers are neither added to nor removed from that circular order too quickly. In order to produce a believable forgery of the blockchain for any meaningful amount of time, an attacker would need to obtain more than half of the private keys of verifiers currently working on the blockchain.
For any block in the blockchain, the verification cycle of that block is defined as the longest list of blocks, ending with that block, that contains no more than one instance of each verifier. Consider the following blockchain, where the number is the block height and the letter is the verifier:
20A, 21B, 22C, 23A, 24B, 25C, 26A
In this blockchain, the verification cycle of block 26 contains blocks 26, 25, and 24. The cycle does not contain block 23, because verifier A is already in the cycle at block 26. The verification cycle of block 25 contains blocks 25, 24, and 23. The cycle does not contain block 22, because verifier C is already in the cycle at block 25.
If a verifier is new to the chain, the same definition holds. To illustrate, we add verifier D at block 27:
20A, 21B, 22C, 23A, 24B, 25C, 26A, 27D
The verification cycle of block 27 is blocks 27, 26, 25, and 24. The cycle does not contain block 23, because verifier A is already present at block 26.
The previous cycle of the block is the cycle immediately before the current cycle. The previous cycle of block 27 in this example would contain blocks 23, 22, and 21, but not block 20, as verifier A is already present in that cycle at block 23.
A “new” verifier is defined as any verifier other than the last verifier of the previous cycle. An “existing” verifier is defined as the last verifier of the previous cycle. If an existing verifier misses a cycle, it will be considered a new verifier the next time it verifies a block.
Building on these definitions, we declare two rules to secure the proof-of-diversity blockchain.
Proof-of-diversity rule 1: After the first existing verifier in the blockchain, a new verifier is only allowed if none of the other blocks in the cycle, the previous cycle, or the two blocks before the previous cycle were verified by new verifiers.
This rule exists to ensure that attackers cannot gain control of the chain by quickly introducing verifiers that they control. The addition of the two blocks before the previous cycle is to avoid clustering new verifiers in the chain.
Proof-of-diversity rule 2: Past the Genesis block, the cycle of a block must be longer than half of one more than the maximum of the all cycle lengths in this cycle and the previous two cycles.
This rule exists to ensure that the majority of the verifiers who are verifying the blockchain cannot be excluded by attackers who are trying to take control of the blockchain. In order to control the direction of the chain, one must control more than 50% of the current active verifiers. The blocks in this and the previous two cycles are considered to avoid divergence at opportunistic moments for verifiers that are clustered around certain parts of the chain.
The metric calculated in this rule cannot increase from one block to the next unless the cycle length also increases from one block to the next. This is important because it ensures that every block that passes this rule can be extended indefinitely.
These are the only two blockchain rules, and together they guarantee that, starting at any point in the blockchain, one must control more than half of the active verifiers to continue to produce a valid version of the blockchain. Unlike proof of work, which can be manipulated at will by anyone in possession of sufficient computational resources, proof of diversity requires active participation in a particular blockchain to have any influence on that blockchain.
The proof-of-diversity blockchain uses analysis of verification cycles to establish the authoritative form of the blockchain. This is not proof-of-work, and it is not proof-of-stake. It is a totally new proof system that relies on diversity of participation for strength. While proof-of-diversity has its own unique concerns that must be addressed to ensure integrity of the blockchain, it is immune to many of the attacks and problems inherent to proof-of-work and proof-of-stake systems, and it is significantly more efficient.