论文标题
通过分析链交易来表征以太坊中主要矿工之间的关系
Characterizing relationships between primary miners in Ethereum by analyzing on-chain transactions
论文作者
论文摘要
人们普遍认为，以太坊采矿是高度集中的。但是，集中化的主要特征是仅查看独立矿工或采矿池对网络产生的影响。此外，采矿行为的模型假设矿工在高度结构化和透明的协议下是无关的，或者仅通过采矿池与采矿池相关。如果这些假设及其所带来的预测是完全准确的，则没有任何证据表明矿工之间的链交易，除了采矿池支出所期望的矿工。通过查看以太坊网络中矿工之间的链交易，我们发现除了从采矿池到小型矿工的支出外，还有一些交易来定义采矿池，独立矿工以及独立矿工和采矿池之间的关系。此外，通过表征矿工交易网络的拓扑结构，我们发现了高度连接的群集的出现，这些群集控制着大量的哈希功率和朝着理论模型预测的相反方向展示关系。采矿集中化的这种更细微的表征可以帮助识别网络漏洞并为协议重新设计提供信息。
It is widely accepted that Ethereum mining is highly centralized. Nonetheless, centralization has been mostly characterized by exclusively looking at the influence that independent miners or mining pools can have over the network. Moreover, models of mining behavior assume that miners are either unrelated or only relate via mining pools under highly structured and transparent agreements. If these assumptions and the predictions they entail were to be completely accurate, there would not be any evidence of on-chain transactions between miners, other than the ones expected from mining pool payouts. By looking at on-chain transactions between miners in the Ethereum Network we find that aside from the payouts from mining pools to small miners, there are also transactions that define relationships between mining pools, independent miners and between independent miners and mining pools. Furthermore, by characterizing the topology of the network of miner transactions, we find the emergence of highly connected clusters that control significant amounts of hashing power and exhibit relationships in the opposite direction of what theoretical models predict. This more nuanced characterization of mining centralization can help identify network vulnerabilities and inform protocol redesigns.
