arXiv · 2603.07632
PoEW:Encryption as Consensus and Enabling Data Compression Services?
Abstract
Proof-of-Work (PoW) is a fundamental method in decentralized digital networks for establishing consensus on a shared ledger. By requiring network participants to solve a mathematical puzzle, PoW maintains network integrity. However, PoW has raised environmental concerns due to its significant energy consumption. This paper introduces Proof-of-Encryption-Work (PoEW), a novel PoW consensus mechanism that repurposes computational power to address the challenge of encryption-based data compression. PoEW uses an exhaustive key search as the PoW puzzle. Given a lengthy plaintext and a fixed ciphertext, the corresponding key is derived. Since the plain-text is much longer than both the key and the ciphertext, this process compresses the plaintext to the key. This data compression is computationally intensive, while decompression is straightforward.
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Chong Guan. 2026-03-08. PoEW:Encryption as Consensus and Enabling Data Compression Services?. https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.07632
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