Module 2.0.0. Authority Masternodes of POA
The POA system requires the staking of identities rather than coins in order to mine new coins. In other words, to produce new coins in a POA system, there are certain people that must be trusted with the authority to make decisions via the blockchain about who should be awarded with new coins. Such individuals are the validators and are called Authority Masternodes.
Therefore, unlike POS which is based on staked coins, the POA consensus algorithm is based on the value of identities. In POS, validators staked their coins while in POA validators are staking their identities instead of their coins.
Thus, the POA blockchain can be seen as a modified POS blockchain. POA has been designed to be faster and more scalable than POW and POS.