Delegated Proof of Stake

Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) is a consensus mechanism in which token holders vote to elect a small, fixed set of block producers who take turns creating blocks on their behalf. Rather than every staker running a validator, holders delegate their voting weight to candidates; the top vote-getters — often 21 to 101 of them — produce blocks in rotation and share rewards with their voters.

EOS is the classic example: its token holders continuously elect 21 block producers, and a producer who misbehaves or goes offline can be voted out and replaced at the next tally. TRON uses a similar model with 27 "super representatives." Because so few machines coordinate each block, DPoS chains achieve fast confirmation and high throughput compared with systems where thousands of validators must participate.

The trade-off is centralization: a couple dozen entities control block production, votes tend to concentrate around exchanges and large holders, and cartel-like behavior among producers is a persistent criticism. A common misconception is that ordinary delegation on chains like Cosmos or Polkadot makes them DPoS; those systems let holders delegate stake, but they differ in validator-set design and slashing, and the DPoS label properly refers to the elected-producer model pioneered by Daniel Larimer in BitShares and Steem. When evaluating a DPoS chain, the practical questions are how many producers exist, how easily voters can replace them, and how concentrated the voting stake is.