&gt; Nothing stops you mining on a private chain, but since you have a small minority of the compute power, the network doesn&#x27;t care about your private chain.<p>Right, this is not an issue for small miners. But if you have a significant part of mining power, it&#x27;s important that there is a significant opportunity cost mining on the wrong chain. That can only be ensured by using a PoW that is wasteful outside the currency you&#x27;re mining.