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I had this idea to create a new cryptocurrency that uses rendering as mining, using it to create a decentralized render farm. is it possible, and if yes, then how? Sorry the question is not in depth. I'll edit this as I go along. Thanks!

RyanTheCactus
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  • Related: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/331/is-there-a-way-to-set-up-proof-of-work-systems-so-they-would-be-even-more-useful – Murch Oct 13 '15 at 21:23

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No.

A proof of work is a piece of data which is difficult (costly, time-consuming) to produce but easy for others to verify. You might be able to squeeze a render job into those constraints (remember, easy to verify also means it needs to be easy (small) to download, otherwise it's already a DOS opportunity right there).

However, another PoW requirement is that the work must be progress-free, which means every iteration of the work is completely independent of all other iterations (like rolling dice). This is because if you have 10% of the capacity, you'll win 10% of the time. As soon as there is progress in the work (20% done, 50% done, 99% done ... 100% done) then the fastest render farm will win 100% of the time (defeating the whole purpose of PoW). That situation also opens up all kinds of exploits where a fast farm can work ahead on the next block and gain an even bigger advantage.

There are many aspects to being progress-free. Even the current bitcoin PoW has a little bit of progress in practice (the block propagation itself) and even a little bit causes centralization pressure: bigger farms have a slight advantage over smaller farms.

Jannes
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    Additionally, there's nothing tying a piece of work to a block or its previous. Without this detail, work can be torn off a block and re-applied to any other and present that as canonical. – Claris Oct 13 '15 at 10:44