Proof-of-Social-Capital: A Consensus Protocol Replacing Stake for Social Capital

Consensus protocols used today in blockchains mostly rely on scarce resources such as computational power or financial stake, favoring wealthy individuals due to a high entry barrier. We propose Proof-of-Social-Capital (PoSC), a new consensus protocol fueled by social capital as a staking resource to ensure fairness and decentralization. Consensus nodes in our system do not require financial or computational resources that are expensive to acquire; instead, they require preexisting social media influence, distributing consensus power not according to wealth but social capital. Our approach integrates zkSNARK proofs, verifiable credentials with a uniqueness-enforcing mechanism to prevent Sybil attacks, and the incentive scheme that rewards engagement with social media content by followers. This work offers a new concept aligned with modern social media lifestyle applied in finance, providing a practical insight for the evolution of decentralized consensus protocols.