  This paper applies biomimetic engineering to the problem of permissionless
Byzantine consensus and achieves results that surpass the prior state of the
art by four orders of magnitude. It introduces a biologically inspired
asymmetric Sybil-resistance mechanism, Proof-of-Balance, which can replace
symmetric Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake weighting schemes.
  The biomimetic mechanism is incorporated into a permissionless blockchain
protocol, Key Retroactivity Network Consensus ("KRNC"), which delivers ~40,000
times the security and speed of today's decentralized ledgers. KRNC allows the
fiat money that the public already owns to be upgraded with cryptographic
inflation protection, eliminating the problems inherent in bootstrapping new
currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
  The paper includes two independently significant contributions to the
literature. First, it replaces the non-structural axioms invoked in prior work
with a new formal method for reasoning about trust, liveness, and safety from
first principles. Second, it demonstrates how two previously overlooked
exploits, book-prize attacks and pseudo-transfer attacks, collectively
undermine the security guarantees of all prior permissionless ledgers.
