The Islamic Development Bank's research institute has been granted a US patent for its "Pr

Islamic Development Bank Institute Patents 'Proof-of-Use'—A New Consensus Mechanism Aimed at Solving PoS Wealth Concentration

Blockchain consensus just got a new contender. The Islamic Development Bank Institute (IsDBI) has been awarded U.S. Patent No. 12,548,031 B2 for a mechanism called "Proof-of-Use" (PoU). The idea? Network influence should come from actual participation, not from how much computing power you have or how many tokens you hold.

PoU operates on reciprocity: you validate someone else's transaction, and in return, yours gets validated. No mining rigs. No staking pools. Just participation. The goal is to cut energy use while sidestepping the wealth concentration problem that plagues proof-of-stake systems.

IsDBI is the research arm of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), a 57-nation multilateral development institution focused on Islamic finance and fintech. So this isn't just academic—it's coming from a major intergovernmental player.