System and method for bootstrapping a separate proof of work chain

An improved blockchain is described herein that allows nodes to optionally generate a proof of work nonce separate from the proof of work nonce present in a burn chain. Generation of the proof of work nonce requires the consumption of energy, and the value of the proof of work nonce can be mapped to an amount of energy consumption. Similarly, an amount of energy consumption can be mapped to an amount of a cryptocurrency. For example, the mapping may indicate how much cryptocurrency could have been produced by the node if the consumed energy was instead put to mining the cryptocurrency. Thus, the node can submit a block commit that indicates the separate proof of work nonce and the amount of cryptocurrency burned. The node can aggregate the mapped amount and the amount burned to determine a probability of the node being selected as a leader.