September 08, 2025

If It Isn’t PoW, It Isn’t Decentralized w/ Dr. K | EPI 361

1 hour 43 minutes

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TODAY'S SHOW: In this episode of Monero Talk, host Douglas Tuman interviews Dr. K, a proof-of-work researcher with over eight years of experience. They dive into Monero’s ongoing “qubic attack,” where mining pool Qubic controls ~35% of the network’s hash rate and causes chain reorganizations.

Dr. K, whose background spans ConsenSys, Grid Plus (creator of the Lattice One wallet), and a National Science Foundation grant for PoW research, proposes a fix: work shares. By sampling multiple proofs per block instead of one, work shares make the network resistant to attacks from miners with less than 51% hash power. Dr. K is already drafting a pull request to add this to Monero’s code.The discussion also explores why Dr. K views proof-of-work as superior to proof-of-stake—emphasizing immutability, permissionlessness, and competitive fairness—and his own project, Quiet Network (QUI), a scalable PoW blockchain with an energy-based token (QI) designed for stable purchasing power.

TIMESTAMPS:

(00:02:28) Dr. K introduces himself and his background

(00:04:44) Dr. K's crypto journey and early experiences

(00:14:21) Dr. K's views on privacy in cryptocurrency

(00:18:45) Dr. K explains why he's a proof of work maximalist

(00:29:03) Discussion of proof of stake vs. proof of work

(00:41:13) Dr. K introduces work shares as a solution to Monero's problems

(00:48:09) Technical details of implementing work shares in Monero

(01:15:06) Comparison of work shares to other proposed solutions

(01:31:22) Introduction to Quiet Network and Qi

(01:38:49) Closing thoughts on unity in the cryptocurrency community

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