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Bounded pool mining and the bounded Bitcoin price

Author

Listed:
  • Jia, Dun
  • Li, Yifan

Abstract

We present a simple model featuring the supply side of the Bitcoin ecosystem, i.e. the market structure of “mining”, to rationalize the relationship between the Bitcoin price volatility and the market concentration in pool mining. An individual miner optimally chooses to operate individually or to delegate the mining capacity in hashrates to a mining pool. The mining pool entertains the trade-off between compromising the network derived from its market power and maintaining sufficient hashrate delegations from dispersed miners. We show that a mining pool finds it optimal to be self-constrained in size while maintaining a positive probability of compromising the network in equilibrium. As a result, the bounded market concentration in pooled mining caps the Bitcoin price fluctuations. We also document important empirical evidence which is consistent with our model predictions.

Suggested Citation

  • Jia, Dun & Li, Yifan, 2023. "Bounded pool mining and the bounded Bitcoin price," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:52:y:2023:i:c:s154461232200705x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2022.103529
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Schilling, Linda & Uhlig, Harald, 2019. "Some simple bitcoin economics," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 16-26.
    2. Walther, Thomas & Klein, Tony & Bouri, Elie, 2019. "Exogenous drivers of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency volatility – A mixed data sampling approach to forecasting," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    3. Hanna Halaburda & Guillaume Haeringer & Joshua Gans & Neil Gandal, 2022. "The Microeconomics of Cryptocurrencies," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 971-1013, September.
    4. Gandal, Neil & Hamrick, JT & Moore, Tyler & Oberman, Tali, 2018. "Price manipulation in the Bitcoin ecosystem," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 86-96.
    5. Budish, Eric B., 2018. "The Economic Limits of Bitcoin and the Blockchain," Working Papers 279, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    6. Eric Budish, 2018. "The Economic Limits of Bitcoin and the Blockchain," NBER Working Papers 24717, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Gronwald, Marc, 2019. "Is Bitcoin a Commodity? On price jumps, demand shocks, and certainty of supply," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 86-92.
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    Cited by:

    1. Li, Zhicheng & Li, Jialong & Zhou, Ke, 2023. "Bitcoin transaction fees and the decentralization of Bitcoin mining pools," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PB).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bitcoin; Market structure; Price variability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E40 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - General
    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • L10 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - General

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