MiningVis: visual analytics of the Bitcoin mining economy

Natkamon Tovanich (natkamon.tovanich@inria.fr), Nicolas Soulié, Nicolas Heulot (nicolas.heulot@gmail.com) and Petra Isenberg (petra.isenberg@inria.fr)
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Natkamon Tovanich: IRT SystemX, AVIZ - Analysis and Visualization - LISN - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire des Sciences du Numérique - Inria - Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique - CentraleSupélec - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - IaH - Interaction avec l'Humain - LISN - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire des Sciences du Numérique - Inria - Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique - CentraleSupélec - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Centre Inria de l'Université Paris-Saclay - Centre Inria de Saclay - Inria - Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique
Nicolas Heulot: IRT SystemX
Petra Isenberg: AVIZ - Analysis and Visualization - LISN - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire des Sciences du Numérique - Inria - Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique - CentraleSupélec - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - IaH - Interaction avec l'Humain - LISN - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire des Sciences du Numérique - Inria - Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique - CentraleSupélec - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Centre Inria de l'Université Paris-Saclay - Centre Inria de Saclay - Inria - Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique

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Abstract: We present a visual analytics tool, MiningVis, to explore the long-term historical evolution and dynamics of the Bitcoin mining ecosystem. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that attracts much attention but remains difficult to understand. Particularly important to the success, stability, and security of Bitcoin is a component of the system called "mining.'' Miners are responsible for validating transactions and are incentivized to participate by the promise of a monetary reward. Mining pools have emerged as collectives of miners that ensure a more stable and predictable income. MiningVis aims to help analysts understand the evolution and dynamics of the Bitcoin mining ecosystem, including mining market statistics, multi-measure mining pool rankings, and pool hopping behavior. Each of these features can be compared to external data concerning pool characteristics and Bitcoin news. In order to assess the value of MiningVis, we conducted online interviews and insight-based user studies with Bitcoin miners. We describe research questions tackled and insights made by our participants and illustrate practical implications for visual analytics systems for Bitcoin mining.

Keywords: Visual analytics; Bitcoin; Bitcoin mining; Mining pools; Pool hopping (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-01
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Published in IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2022, 28 (1), pp.868-878. ⟨10.1109/TVCG.2021.3114821⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03348145

DOI: 10.1109/TVCG.2021.3114821

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