In proof of work blockchain systems, there are strong incentives towards designing hardware that can mine faster and/or with less power consumption. There are two ways of taking advantage of such devices: one can use them to mine more coins with less power, or he can sell it to other miners. The two strategies are not independent, of course: if everybody has the boosting technology, the difficulty will rise, and it won’t be an advantage anymore. On the other hand, if the boost is above a certain threshold, being used only by a small subset of miners might mean centralizing the system, with potentially dangerous consequences on the platform credibility. In this paper we analyse the impact of different strategies to exploit a significant increase in mining hardware efficiency. To do so, we developed a multi-agent based simulator, that mimics the relevant mechanics of the mining ecosystem, as well as some features of the miners as economic actors. We then characterized different significant sell-it-or-mine-with-it strategies, and observed the simulated outcome.

Mine with it or sell it: The superhashing power dilemma

Bruschi F.;Rana V.;GENTILE, LORENZO;Sciuto D.
2019-01-01

Abstract

In proof of work blockchain systems, there are strong incentives towards designing hardware that can mine faster and/or with less power consumption. There are two ways of taking advantage of such devices: one can use them to mine more coins with less power, or he can sell it to other miners. The two strategies are not independent, of course: if everybody has the boosting technology, the difficulty will rise, and it won’t be an advantage anymore. On the other hand, if the boost is above a certain threshold, being used only by a small subset of miners might mean centralizing the system, with potentially dangerous consequences on the platform credibility. In this paper we analyse the impact of different strategies to exploit a significant increase in mining hardware efficiency. To do so, we developed a multi-agent based simulator, that mimics the relevant mechanics of the mining ecosystem, as well as some features of the miners as economic actors. We then characterized different significant sell-it-or-mine-with-it strategies, and observed the simulated outcome.
2019
Performance Evaluation Review
Bitcoin; Blockchain; Ethereum; Hardware; Hash; Mining; Simulation
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11311/1091638
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