Empirical Analysis of Pool Hopping Behavior in Bitcoin Mining

15 mining pools are analyzed throughout Bitcoin's history to study miner migration. The dataset, created by Natkamon Tovanich of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, uses a heuristic algorithm to extract payout flows and detect pool migration. Results indicate that reward rules and pool fees influence miners' decisions, affecting market share dynamics.

Use Cases

• Modeling mining pool market share dynamics based on reward rules and fees mentioned in the description
• Analyzing miner migration patterns between pools based on the extracted payout flow data
• Studying the industrialization of Bitcoin mining based on evidence of classical economic rationale
• Investigating the relationship between pool hopping behavior and Bitcoin network security

Strengths

• Analysis covers 15 mining pools, providing a multi-actor perspective
• Empirical study spans the entire history of Bitcoin, offering longitudinal insights
• Dataset is associated with a research paper proposing a novel heuristic algorithm for detection

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count and data size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified

Provenance

Source

paperswithcode

Collection Method

Heuristic algorithm applied to Bitcoin blockchain data to extract payout flows and detect migration.

Time Range

Throughout Bitcoin's history (from inception to time of study).