A white paper for a new protocol called Heroglyphs was unveiled late Wednesday, aiming to incentivize Ethereum solo stakers with new tokens by mimicking elements of proof-of-work systems.

“Excited to share v0 of the Heroglyphs white paper. Heroglyphs is designed to reward solo stakers, adding a bit of PoW into Ethereum’s PoS [proof-of-stake],” pseudonymous co-author Manny said.

The co-authors, also including former Sushi core contributor 0xMaki, argue that fair crypto token distribution mechanisms have been missing since Ethereum moved away from a proof-of-work consensus mechanism in September 2022. Plus, they argue that liquid staking protocols — which have becoming increasingly popular — may concentrate control in the hands of a few people, potentially undermining the decentralized …