Proof-of-Verifiable-Work (PoVW)

Proof-of-Verifiable-Work (PoVW) is a name used for incentive schemes that reward participants for performing computation whose result can be verified quickly by others, rather than for the deliberately wasteful puzzle-solving of classic proof of work. The idea is that the "work" is useful in itself, for example producing a zero-knowledge proof that a program ran correctly, and that the amount of work done can be measured and checked without redoing it. The term is not a single standard: different projects have used it for their own designs, most visibly networks that pay independent provers to generate proofs for other blockchains and applications. Because each design sets its own rules for measuring and rewarding work, readers should check a project's own documentation before treating PoVW as a settled consensus mechanism. Also see ZK-rollups, a major user of such proofs.