Proof-of-Green (PoG): A New Permissionless Blockchain Structure and Consensus Mechanism

Blockchain technology, initially introduced through cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, has revolutionized trust and data storage. However, challenges such as fairness in reward distribution, scalability, security, and efficiency limit the potential of blockchain technology compared to non-blockchain solutions. In this paper, we propose Proof-of-Green (PoG), a novel consensus mechanism that addresses these challenges. PoG is secure, scalable, and fair in reward distribution without relying on computationally intensive methods like Proof-of-Work (PoW). Our approach incorporates a unique weighted-voting process for consensus leader election, which involves a credibility scoring system and three stages: Red Announcements, Yellow Transactions, and Green Blocks. We have developed a PoG-based blockchain implementation and benchmarked it against RepuCoin, a recent PoW-based consensus mechanism. Our results demonstrate that PoG outperforms PoW-based mechanisms in terms of scalability, fairness, and security. Our proposed mechanism achieves a processing capacity of 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) with as few as 13 block producers, surpassing the 7 TPS of Bitcoin PoW. Additionally, PoG exhibits 0.95 (95%) fairness and provides enhanced resilience against known attacks through its credibility scoring and on-chain provenance mechanism. These advantages position PoG as a promising alternative to existing PoW-based approaches, offering improved performance and security in blockchain consensus.