Proof of Evolution: leveraging blockchain mining for a cooperative execution of Genetic Algorithms

Abstract

Proof of Work (PoW) is the consensus protocol introduced with Bitcoin, and is still one of the most used protocols, thanks to its security properties. However, it is very expensive in terms of energy consumption. For this reason, many other protocols have been designed in order to earmark part of the computations for useful tasks, or to reduce them, but few of these have the same properties of PoW.With this paper we propose a new consensus protocol for blockchains, called Proof of Evolution (PoE), that keeps the security features of PoW, and uses part of the mining computations for the execution of genetic algorithms (GAs) that some clients can submit. Moreover, PoE enables a form of cooperation among miners. During the mining process, in fact, miners have to maintain and evolve a population of solution candidates; PoE offers them the possibility of sharing their current best found solutions, that they can add to their population. This exchange seems to enhance the quality of the solutions they can achieve with the GAs in use. PoE is close to Proof of Search (PoS), which in turn extends PoW in order to solve optimization problems while mining. While PoS stimulates miners in submitting solutions for a problem of interest, the contribution of PoE is to encourage them to share their current best found solutions, allowing cooperation.