Gregory's Server
Yes, both are true.
They used to be similar, but Ethereum moved off "proof of work" to "proof of stake" and became far more efficient and I think that went as planned.
But the computations and data all have to be stored on each machine, it's the whole point of a blockchain, so still, everything's 7000x as expensive in total as just doing it on one machine.
@TomSwirly @thomasfuchs
Got it. With "proof of stake" the computations are repeated on 7000 machines and results stored on 7000 machines, yes it's ridiculously inefficient, even if the computations are fairly simple. But better than Bitcoin at least.
(Any idea how many machines do the Bitcoin "proof of work" computations, as opposed to primarily "mining"?)