POW
Abbreviation with 2 meanings
| Stands for | Prisoner of war |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 2 |
| Categories | Military, Technology & Computing |
| Also written | PoW |
POW has two meanings. It stands for Prisoner of war (military term) or Proof of work (cryptocurrency & blockchain).
Meanings of POW at a glance
| # | POW stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Prisoner of war | Military › Military Term |
| 2 | Proof of work | Technology & Computing › Cryptocurrency & Blockchain |
1. Prisoner of war
Military · Military Term Abbreviations
Status of a combatant captured and held by an enemy power during armed conflict. Under the Third Geneva Convention of 1949, POWs must be treated humanely, may be questioned but not coerced, and must be released and repatriated when hostilities end.
Example: The former POW spent nearly six years in the "Hanoi Hilton" before his release in 1973.
The US Code of Conduct, adopted in 1955 after the Korean War, sets out how American service members should behave if captured. The Prisoner of War Medal was established in 1985. Captives must give only name, rank, service number and date of birth. Spelled out, "prisoner of war"; the plural is POWs.
2. Proof of work (PoW)
Technology & Computing · Cryptocurrency & Blockchain Abbreviations
A consensus mechanism in which miners compete to solve a computational puzzle by repeatedly hashing data, and the winner adds the next block and earns a reward. The work makes rewriting history prohibitively expensive. Bitcoin uses PoW.
Example: Bitcoin's PoW security comes from the huge amount of electricity miners spend on hashing.
The concept appeared in Cynthia Dwork and Moni Naor's 1992 work on fighting junk email and in Adam Back's Hashcash (1997), which Satoshi Nakamoto adapted for bitcoin. Critics point to bitcoin's energy use, comparable to that of a mid-sized country, while supporters argue it ties security to real-world cost. An attacker with most of the network's hash power could carry out a 51 percent attack.
Related abbreviations
More military term abbreviations
- PME – Professional military education
- POG – Person other than grunt
- POL – Petroleum, oils and lubricants
- POV – Privately owned vehicle
- PPM – Personally procured move
- PSG – Platoon sergeant
- PSYOP – Psychological operations
- PT – Physical training
See all 248 military term abbreviations →