Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners

Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape

Alex Biryukov, Daniel Feher

University of Luxembourg

April 29, 2019

Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners

Outline

Mining Hardware Landscape

Introduction of ASICs

Privacy of Miners

Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners

Outline

Mining Hardware Landscape

Introduction of ASICs

Privacy of Miners

Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners

Cryptocurrency Mining

I Core element of several currenciesI Dominated by mining poolsI Different hardware per currency based on used PoW

(GPU, ASIC)I GPUs have many variants

Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners

Mining Terms

I Mining Farm can consist of multiple rigsI Workers are manually set up partitions of a miner’s farmI A worker can consist of a single or multiple rigs

Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners

Data collection

I Some large pools have open APIs (BitFly, Nanopool)I Only need the address of a miner for their worker data

I The data contains the name and the last 24h averagemining power of every active worker

I Blockchain scanning for miner addresses (Ethereum,Zcash)

I Extract data based on worker names (using the GPUnames)

Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners

Ethereum Hardware

0 20 40 60 80 100Mhash/s

0

5

10

Num

ber o

f Wor

kers

GTX 1050

0 20 40 60 80 100Mhash/s

0

20

40

Num

ber o

f Wor

kers

GTX 1060

0 20 40 60 80 100Mhash/s

0

5

10

15

20

Num

ber o

f Wor

kers

GTX 1070

0 20 40 60 80 100Mhash/s

0

20

40

60

80

Num

ber o

f Wor

kers

RX 580

Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners

Zcash Hardware

0 200 400 600 800 1000Sol/s

0.0

2.5

5.0

7.5

10.0

Num

ber o

f Wor

kers

GTX 1050

0 200 400 600 800 1000Sol/s

0

10

20

30

40

Num

ber o

f Wor

kers

GTX 1060

0 200 400 600 800 1000Sol/s

0

5

10

Num

ber o

f Wor

kers

GTX 1070

0 200 400 600 800 1000Sol/s

0

5

10

15Nu

mbe

r of W

orke

rs

GTX 1080

Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners

Overall Numbers of HardwareHardware Num Hardware Num Hardware NumGTX1050 631 GTX1050ti 856 GTX1060 5800

p106 1543 GTX1070 3327 GTX1070ti 616GTX1080 855 GTX1080ti 1023

RX460 656 RX470 3713 RX480 1650RX560 1084 RX570 6068 RX580 6273

Table: Ethereum

Hardware Num Hardware Num Hardware NumGTX1050 327 GTX1050ti 183 GTX1060 1783GTX1070 791 GTX1070ti 207 GTX1080 918GTX1080ti 617 GTX970 157

Table: Zcash

Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners

Outline

Mining Hardware Landscape

Introduction of ASICs

Privacy of Miners

Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners

Introduction of ASICs

I Zcash uses Equihash hashing algorithmI Designed to be ASIC resistant, mining only with GPUsI Late May, 2018 multiple ASIC (application-specific

integrated circuit) miners were announced for the versionimplemented in Zcash

I Was there hidden ASIC mining in Zcash?I Similar circumstances in Monero, where the likelihood of

hidden mining was high

Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners

Comparison of GPU Mined Coins

0

2000 Msol/s

1000 Msol/s

3000 Msol/s

4000 Msol/s

5000 Msol/s

Dec Mar Jun Sep Dec Mar Jun Sep Dec20182017

Figure: Sum of total power of (formerly) GPU-mined blockchains (Purple:Zcash, Dark Blue: ZenCash, Light Blue: Bitcoin Gold, Green: Zclassic,Orange: Monero, Yellow: Ethereum)

Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners

Developer Fees

I Most used mining software have built-in developer feesI Developer fee is payed by mining 2% of the time to the

developer’s addressI Find the addresses of developersI Approximate mining power, extrapolate for entire chain

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Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners

Dec Mar Jun Jul OctJan Feb Apr May Aug Sep Nov Dec Jan AprFeb May2017

Mar2018

400 Msol/s

200 Msol/s

600 Msol/s

Hashrate 1.0

0.75

0.5

0.25

Figure: Lower bound of GPU mining power based on the developer fees(Green: Claymore, Blue: EWBF, Purple: dstm, Light Blue: Bminer, Orange:Optiminer, Red: Remaining Hash rate)

Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners

0

5.0 × 1081.0 × 1091.5 × 1092.0 × 109

June August October

Figure: The recent change in the projected mining power from dev-fees forthe overall Equihash hash rate

Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners

Number of Miners Receiving Payouts Every Day

0

10 000

20 000

30 000

40 000

50 000

60 000 Number of Miners Per Day

June August October

-Less than 5ksol/s-Less than 35ksol/s-More than 35ksol/s

Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners

Outline

Mining Hardware Landscape

Introduction of ASICs

Privacy of Miners

Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners

Approximating Hashing Rate

I Approximating hashing rate based on mining pool payoutsI Function of time, value and global hashing rateI Miners can be individually tracked

Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners

Recorded Hash Rates from ZcashApproximate the hashing rate of every miner based on payouts

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500Sol/s

0

2500

5000

7500

10000

12500

15000

17500

20000

Num

ber o

f Rec

ords

Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners

Recorded Hash Rates from ZcashApproximating the hash rate of a single user over time

1000

800

600

400

200

Time

Example for Changing Mining PowerSol/s

Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners

Countermeasures

I Increase payout thresholdI Frequently change addressesI Use shielded addresses if supported

Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners

Summary

I Study of mining hardware popularityI Lack of proof for hidden ASIC mining in ZcashI Mining rewards leak relevant information

Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware LandscapeIntroduction of ASICsPrivacy of Miners