Abstract
This report presents a formalization of the Proof of Burn (POB) consensus mechanism utilized in the Arya blockchain, demonstrating its ability to achieve consensus among agents in the presence of a bounded adversary. Unlike traditional consensus methods like Proof of Work (POW), which requires significant computational resources, or Proof of Stake (POS), which relies on staking currency, POB achieves consensus by requiring participants to destroy currency to mine blocks. This approach is particularly suited to resource-constrained devices and provides natural bounds on campaign lengths by reducing monetary supply over time. The Arya POB algorithm diverges significantly from prior POB designs, such as Stewart's implementation in Slimcoin, by introducing immediate mining rights upon burning currency and employing a round-robin mining system tailored for private networks with known participants. By extracting and analyzing the consensus backbone of the Arya system, this work provides rigorous security and consensus guarantees, adapting foundational proofs from the Bitcoin backbone model to the unique requirements of Arya's private, agent-based network.