The farmer's dilemma arises in Proof-of-Capacity (PoC) blockchains, where farmers must choose between allocating their limited storage resources to maintain the blockchain's state and history or maximizing their storage for consensus participation. This trade-off presents a challenge: rational farmers tend to prioritize maximizing consensus space, which can lead them to become light clients or join centralized farming pools. Consequently, this behavior undermines the network's decentralization and security, as fewer nodes maintain the complete history. The dilemma highlights the need for innovative solutions that allow farmers to contribute to both consensus and data integrity without compromising their incentives or the overall health of the blockchain ecosystem

AUTONOMYS’ SOLUTION

Using the Subspace protocol, Autonomys allows farmers to efficiently store blockchain history without sacrificing security or decentralization by decoupling consensus from execution. Farmers collectively maintain the blockchain's history through replicated storage, enabling them to focus on proposing transaction orders while dedicated executor nodes handle state maintenance and computation. This design significantly reduces the storage and computational burden on farmers, promoting broader participation with standard hardware, thereby enhancing decentralization and security. #AI3

For decentralized AI applications, this solution offers substantial benefits, including a robust infrastructure for data integrity and availability, which is crucial for AI training and deployment. It fosters a scalable environment where AI can operate securely and efficiently, promoting innovation in decentralized applications that leverage AI technology while ensuring user autonomy and control over their data. #AI3