# A Survey of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Blockchain Designs

> A broad overview of approaches to proof-of-stake blockchain design with Valeria Nikolaenko (a16z crypto Research Partner). Valeria examines both longest-chain and BFT-style consensus protocols, compares them, and examines the variants used in real-world blockchains. She also examines other PoS desig...

- URL: https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/videos/a-survey-of-proof-of-stake-pos-blockchain-designs
- Authors: [Valeria Nikolaenko](https://a16zcrypto.com/team/valeria-nikolaenko)
- Published: 2022-08-13
- Updated: 2025-01-29
- Focus areas: tech trends, research
- Tags: consensus, proof of stake, VDFs, BFT, Ethereum, video
- Format: videos

---

A broad overview of approaches to proof-of-stake blockchain design with Valeria Nikolaenko (a16z crypto Research Partner). Valeria examines both longest-chain and BFT-style consensus protocols, compares them, and examines the variants used in real-world blockchains. She also examines other PoS designs, such as Algorand, Avalanche, and Solana. Valeria also covers leader-election strategies with the use of VRFs and VDFs, and discusses the space of possible attacks. Finally, she examines the consensus layer design of Ethereum.

[Embedded media](https://www.youtube.com/embed/mZ-Ya7NRDxM?feature=oembed)

---

Source: [A Survey of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Blockchain Designs](https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/videos/a-survey-of-proof-of-stake-pos-blockchain-designs) — a16z crypto. Full archive: https://a16zcrypto.com/posts