Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape Alex Biryukov, Daniel Feher - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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 ◮ Core element of several currencies ◮ Dominated by mining pools ◮ Different hardware per currency based on used PoW (GPU, ASIC) ◮ 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 ◮ Mining Farm can consist of multiple rigs ◮ Workers are manually set up partitions of a miner’s farm ◮ 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 ◮ Some large pools have open APIs (BitFly, Nanopool) ◮ Only need the address of a miner for their worker data ◮ The data contains the name and the last 24h average mining power of every active worker ◮ Blockchain scanning for miner addresses (Ethereum, Zcash) ◮ Extract data based on worker names (using the GPU names) Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners Ethereum Hardware GTX 1050 GTX 1060 Number of Workers Number of Workers 10 40 5 20 0 0 0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100 Mhash/s Mhash/s GTX 1070 RX 580 80 20 Number of Workers Number of Workers 60 15 40 10 20 5 0 0 0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100 Mhash/s Mhash/s Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners Zcash Hardware GTX 1060 GTX 1050 40 10.0 Number of Workers Number of Workers 30 7.5 5.0 20 2.5 10 0.0 0 0 200 400 600 800 1000 0 200 400 600 800 1000 Sol/s Sol/s GTX 1070 GTX 1080 Number of Workers Number of Workers 15 10 10 5 5 0 0 0 200 400 600 800 1000 0 200 400 600 800 1000 Sol/s Sol/s Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners Overall Numbers of Hardware Hardware Num Hardware Num Hardware Num GTX1050 631 GTX1050ti 856 GTX1060 5800 p106 1543 GTX1070 3327 GTX1070ti 616 GTX1080 855 GTX1080ti 1023 RX460 656 RX470 3713 RX480 1650 RX560 1084 RX570 6068 RX580 6273 Table: Ethereum Hardware Num Hardware Num Hardware Num GTX1050 327 GTX1050ti 183 GTX1060 1783 GTX1070 791 GTX1070ti 207 GTX1080 918 GTX1080ti 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 ◮ Zcash uses Equihash hashing algorithm ◮ Designed to be ASIC resistant, mining only with GPUs ◮ Late May, 2018 multiple ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) miners were announced for the version implemented in Zcash ◮ Was there hidden ASIC mining in Zcash? ◮ 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 5 000 Msol/s 4 000 Msol/s 3 000 Msol/s 2 000 Msol/s 1000 Msol/s 0 Dec Mar Jun Sep Dec Mar Jun Sep Dec 2017 2018 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 ◮ Most used mining software have built-in developer fees ◮ Developer fee is payed by mining 2% of the time to the developer’s address ◮ Find the addresses of developers ◮ Approximate mining power, extrapolate for entire chain Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners Hashrate 1.0 6 00 Msol/s 0.75 4 00 Msol/s 0.5 200 Msol/s 0.25 Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May 2017 2018 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 2.0 × 109 1.5 × 109 1.0 × 109 5.0 × 108 0 June August October Figure: The recent change in the projected mining power from dev-fees for the 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 Number of Miners Per Day 60 000 - Less than 5ksol/s 50 000 - Less than 35ksol/s - More than 35ksol/s 40 000 30 000 20 000 10 000 0 June August October 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 ◮ Approximating hashing rate based on mining pool payouts ◮ Function of time, value and global hashing rate ◮ 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 Zcash Approximate the hashing rate of every miner based on payouts 20000 17500 Number of Records 15000 12500 10000 7500 5000 2500 0 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 Sol/s Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners Recorded Hash Rates from Zcash Approximating the hash rate of a single user over time Example for Changing Mining Power Sol/s 1000 800 600 400 200 Time Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg

Mining Hardware Landscape Introduction of ASICs Privacy of Miners Countermeasures ◮ Increase payout threshold ◮ Frequently change addresses ◮ 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 ◮ Study of mining hardware popularity ◮ Lack of proof for hidden ASIC mining in Zcash ◮ Mining rewards leak relevant information Portrait of a Miner in a Landscape University of Luxembourg