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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
