Collatz-PoW: A Novel Proof-of-Work System Based on the Collatz Conjecture

This paper introduces Collatz-PoW, a novel Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm designed to resist the mining centralization caused by Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). The system is based on the Collatz conjecture, requiring miners to find a nonce that produces a Collatz sequence of a specific, targeted length. We argue that the algorithm's sequential and branch-heavy nature is inherently ill-suited to the parallelization strategies used by ASICs. This work provides a formal definition, a complete open-source Python prototype of a blockchain using this mechanism, and experimental results demonstrating fast verification times (<0.5 ms) and a tunable, exponential difficulty curve.