POA Network (POA) is a token platform and a public side chain of Ethereum but with improved features due to the efficient consensus mechanism being used i.e. Proof of Authority. The benefits of this consensus protocol include higher transaction throughput, energy efficient, horizontal scaling, no specialed hardware required and lower transaction costs. Similar to ERC-20 tokens, POA Network offers POA-20 tokens which can be interchanged on Ethereum network in a cost-effective manner usingShow more [+] cross-chain bridge technology. The POA Network is suitable for monetization of games and offers 3 times faster solution than Ethereum at fraction of the cost. A number of Dapps are available over the blockchain such as Governance, Bridge UI, Network stats, BlockScout. Ethereum Dapps can also be ported to POA Network blockchain for efficient and low-cost operations.
The POA Network team has Igor Barinov (co-founded Block Notary) as a product manager, Viktor Baranov as core developers and Andrew Cravenho as a project lead. The team has total of 13 members. The advisory board has 5 members.
The Proof of Authority consensus protocol runs on a network of nodes known as validators. Unlike Proof of Stake where the identity of nodes is unknown and the value is given according to the number of tokens held, Proof of Authority initial nodes (validators) are Independent US public notaries with active commission license. Initially, 12 validators will be allotted the keys and further validators can be added through the voting process using builtin Governance Dapp. There is no requirement of holding a minimum amount of POA network tokens. There are several benefits of Proof of Authority consensus such as validators have a known identity, fast network (block created every 5 seconds) and legally recognizable hard forks.