Proof of Work - Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org ![rw-book-cover|200x400](https://readwise-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/static/images/article3.5c705a01b476.png) ## Metadata - Author: **en.wikipedia.org** - Full Title: Proof of Work - Wikipedia - Category: #articles - Tags: #web3 - URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_of_work ## Highlights - Proof of work (PoW) is a form of cryptographic proof in which one party (the prover) proves to others (the verifiers) that a certain amount of a specific computational effort has been expended.[1] Verifiers can subsequently confirm this expenditure with minimal effort on their part. The concept was invented by Moni Naor and Cynthia Dwork in 1993 as a way to deter denial-of-service attacks and other service abuses such as spam on a network by requiring some work from a service requester, usually meaning processing time by a computer. The term "proof of work" was first coined and formalized in a 1999 paper by Markus Jakobsson and Ari Juels.