Bitcoin vs. Bitcoin Cash: Coexistence or Downfall of Bitcoin Cash – Yujin Kwon Presented on the 2019 IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy May 20–22, 2019 San Francisco, CA http://www.ieee-security.org/TC/SP2019/
Bitcoin has turn out to be the most well-liked cryptocurrency based mostly on a peer-to-peer community. In Aug. 2019, Bitcoin was cut up into the unique Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Since then, miners have had a alternative between BTC and BTC BCH Mining Antminer S9 14th/s & APW3+ Power Supply In” alt=”BCH mining”>BCH mining as a result of they’ve appropriate proof-of-work algorithms. Therefore, they will freely select which coin to mine for increased revenue, the place the profitability will depend on each the coin value and mining problem. Some miners can instantly change the coin to mine solely when mining problem modifications as a result of the issue modifications are extra predictable than that for the coin value, and we name this habits fickle mining. In this paper, we research the consequences of fickle mining by modeling a recreation between two cash. To do that, we contemplate each fickle miners and a few factions (e.g., BITMAIN for BCH mining) that follow mining one coin to take care of that chain. In this mannequin, we present that fickle mining results in a Nash equilibrium through which solely a faction sticking to its coin mining stays as a loyal miner to the much less valued coin (e.g., BCH), the place loyal miners consult with those that conduct mining even after coin mining problem will increase. This state of affairs would trigger extreme centralization, weakening the safety of the coin system. To decide which equilibrium the competing coin programs (e.g., BTC vs. BCH) are transferring towards, we traced the historic modifications of mining energy for BTC and BCH and located that BCH usually lacked loyal miners till Nov. 13, 2019, when the issue adjustment algorithm of BCH mining was modified. However, the change in problem adjustment algorithm of BCH mining led to a state near the steady coexistence of BTC and BCH. We additionally reveal that the dearth of BCH loyal miners should still be reached when a fraction of miners mechanically and repeatedly switches to probably the most worthwhile coin to mine (i.e., computerized mining). According to our evaluation, as of Dec. 2019, loyal miners to BCH would go away if greater than about 5% of the full mining capability for BTC and BCH has engaged within the computerized mining. In addition, we analyze the current “hash war” between Bitcoin ABC and SV, which confirms our theoretical evaluation. Finally, we observe that our outcomes will be utilized to any competing cryptocurrency programs through which the identical {hardware} (e.g., ASICs or GPUs) can be utilized for mining. Therefore, our research brings new and essential angles in aggressive coin markets: a coin can deliberately weaken the safety and decentralization degree of the opposite rival coin when mining {hardware} is shared between them, permitting for computerized mining.
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