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explained how is their reputation adjusted/quantified
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0xOZ committed May 2, 2024
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Expand Up @@ -22,6 +22,8 @@ There are multiple implementations of PoA, but the standard Ethereum implementat

In PoA, a set of authorized signers are selected to create new blocks. The signers are selected based on their reputation, and they are the only ones allowed to create new blocks. The signers are selected in a round-robin fashion, and each signer is allowed to create a block in a specific time frame. The block creation time is fixed, and the signers are required to create a block within that time frame.

The reputation in this context is not a quantified thing but rather it is the reputation of well known corporations like Microsoft and Google, hence the way of selecting the trusted signers is not lograthmatic but rather it is the normal human act of _trust_ where an entity let's say for example Microsoft creates a PoA private network between hundrends or thousands of startups and role itself as the only trusted signer with the possibility of adding other well-known signers like Google in the future, the startups would without doubt trust Microsoft to act in honest manner all the times and use the network. This solves the need to stake in different small/private networks that where built for different purposes to keep them decentralized and functioning, along with the need for miners which consumes a lot of power and resources. Some private networks use the PoA standard as it such as VeChain, and some modifies it such as Binance which uses [PoSA](https://academy.binance.com/en/glossary/proof-of-staked-authority-posa) which is a custom modified version of PoA and PoS.

The voting process is done by the signers themselves. Each signer votes for the addition or removal of a signer in their block when they create a new block. The votes are tallied up by the nodes, and the signers are added or removed based on the votes reaching a certain threshold `SIGNER_LIMIT`.

There may be a situation where small forks occur, the difficulty of a block depends on whether the block was signed in turn or out of turn. “In turn” blocks have difficulty 2, and “out of turn” blocks have difficulty 1. In the case of small forks, the chain with most of the signers sealing blocks “in turn” will accumulate the most difficulty and win.
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| Scalable more than other popular mechanisms such PoS and PoW, as it's based on a limited number of block signers | PoA networks typically have a relatively small number of validating nodes. This makes a PoA network more centralized. |
| PoA blockchains are incredibly cheap to run and maintain | becoming an authorized signer is typically out of reach for an ordinary person, because the blockchain requires entities with established reputation. |
| The transactions are confirmed very quick as it could reach less than 1 second because only limited number of signers are required to validate new blocks | malicious signers could reorg, double spend, censor transactions in the network, those attacks are mitigated but still possible |
| The transactions are confirmed very quick as it could reach less than 1 second because only limited number of signers are required to validate new blocks | malicious signers could reorg, double spend, censor transactions in the network, those attacks are mitigated but still possible |

## Further Reading {#further-reading}

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