An Analysis of Transaction Handling in Bitcoin

Bitcoin has become the leading cryptocurrency system, but the limit on its transaction processing capacity has resulted in increased transaction fees and delayed transaction confirmation. As such, it is pertinent to understand and probably predict how transactions are handled by Bitcoin such that a user may adapt the transaction requests and a miner may adjust the block generation strategy and/or the mining pool to join. To this aim, the present paper introduces results from an analysis of transaction handling in Bitcoin. Specifically, the analysis consists of two-part. The first part is an exploratory data analysis revealing key characteristics in Bitcoin transaction handling. The second part is a predictability analysis intended to provide insights on transaction handling such as (i) transaction confirmation time, (ii) block attributes, and (iii) who has created the block. The result shows that some models do reasonably well for (ii), but surprisingly not for (i) or (iii)

Criptoeconomia do Bitcoin : uma revisão bibliográfica de modelos de teoria dos jogos na mineração do Bitcoin

A criação do Bitcoin possibilitou a realização de trocas entre indivíduos sem a necessidade de terceiros de forma transparente e confiável. Isso só foi possível pelo desenvolvimento da rede Blockchain, cuja estrutura se baseia na descentralização e cooperação de validadores, chamados de mineradores. Considerando a relação entre esses agentes em diferentes níveis, o estudo da criptoeconomia foca em analisar essas dinâmicas sob uma perspectiva interdisciplinar. Em especial, a interação estratégica entre os mineradores, permite uma intersecção com a Teoria dos Jogos na medida em que os agentes podem decidir entre seguir com o consenso da rede, ou buscar incentivos de não cooperação. O objetivo deste trabalho foi construir uma revisão de artigos neste campo, focando em compreender quais modelos e conceitos da Teoria dos Jogos são utilizados, bem como quais são as principais questões examinadas nesses estudos. Como principal resultado, foi evidenciado que o desenvolvimento desta área de estudos é recente e marcado por uma forte interdisciplinaridade. Além disso, as publicações analisadas indicam que a segurança de mining pools é uma prioridade na maioria dos estudos analisados. Assim, a compreensão da segurança relacionada a descentralização da rede Blockchain pode se beneficiar muito com a análise das interações estratégicas entre os mineradores a partir da perspectiva de Teoria dos Jogos.The creation of Bitcoin enabled transactions between individuals without the need for third parties in a transparent and reliable way. This was only possible because of the development of a Blockchain network, which structure is based on the decentralization and cooperation of validators called miners. Considering the relationship between these agents at different levels, the study of cryptoeconomics focuses on analyzing these dynamics from an interdisciplinary perspective. In particular, the strategic interaction between miners allows an intersection with Game Theory, as agents can decide between following with the network consensus or to seek non-cooperation incentives. The objective of this work was to review papers within this field, focusing on understanding which models and concepts of Game Theory are used, as well as which are the main issues examined in these studies. As a main result, it was found that the development of this area of studies is recent and marked by a strong interdisciplinarity. In addition, the analyzed publications indicate that the security of mining pools is a priority in most of the analyzed studies. Thus, the understanding of security related to decentralization of the Blockchain network can highly benefit from the analysis of strategic interactions between miners from a Game Theory perspective

Data for: Block Withholding Game Among Bitcoin Mining Pools

Size of Bitcoin mining pools.THIS DATASET IS ARCHIVED AT DANS/EASY, BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE HERE. TO VIEW A LIST OF FILES AND ACCESS THE FILES IN THIS DATASET CLICK ON THE DOI-LINK ABOV

Data for: Block Withholding Game Among Bitcoin Mining Pools

Size of Bitcoin mining pools