Proof of capacity (PoC) is a consensus mechanism algorithm used in the Burst blockchain, that allows the mining devices in the network to use their available hard drive space to decide the mining right.

In a Proof-of-Work system, the network of transactions is secured by performing an insane amount of computations every second in order to validate each block. This is why you have to use hardware like powerful CPUs, GPUs or ASICs to mine.

This leads to downsides like high electricity consumption, heat and noise, the need for specialized non-reusable hardware and centralization of the mining process by big corporations.