IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/u58ns_v1.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Miners' Reward Elasticity and Stability of Competing Proof-of-Work Cryptocurrencies

Author

Listed:
  • Kawaguchi, Kohei
  • Noda, Shunya
  • Komiyama, Junpei

Abstract

The efficient processing of payments is crucial in transaction systems, particularly in those reliant on key cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). However, the decentralized nature of these systems, coupled with the algorithmic incentives and competition among multiple cryptocurrencies for miners, poses significant challenges in analyzing transaction speed determination in Proof-of-Work (PoW) cryptocurrencies. To address these challenges, we developed a dynamic model of the multicurrency mining market where miners switch which currency to mine and identified the necessary and sufficient conditions for competing cryptocurrencies to maintain stable transaction speeds. We documented evidence of competition among cryptocurrencies for miners and estimated miners' hash supply reward elasticity using a discontinuity caused by "halving". We also conducted counterfactual simulations to examine the factors contributing to stability. Our results indicate that Bitcoin's stability heavily relies on external factors such as historical low hash-supply elasticity and interactions with other cryptocurrencies. Interestingly, despite their smaller size, Bitcoin's forks and their efficient difficulty adjustments significantly contribute to Bitcoin's stability. These findings imply that an algorithm upgrade to stabilize Bitcoin is highly recommended.

Suggested Citation

  • Kawaguchi, Kohei & Noda, Shunya & Komiyama, Junpei, 2022. "Miners' Reward Elasticity and Stability of Competing Proof-of-Work Cryptocurrencies," SocArXiv u58ns_v1, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:u58ns_v1
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/u58ns_v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/630cd8177eb6d333e51fade3/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/u58ns_v1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Julien Prat & Benjamin Walter, 2021. "An Equilibrium Model of the Market for Bitcoin Mining," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(8), pages 2415-2452.
    2. Jonathan Chiu & Seyed Mohammadreza Davoodalhosseini & Janet Jiang & Yu Zhu, 2023. "Bank Market Power and Central Bank Digital Currency: Theory and Quantitative Assessment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 131(5), pages 1213-1248.
    3. Jiaqi Li & Andrew Usher & Yu Zhu, 2024. "Central Bank Digital Currency and Banking Choices," Staff Working Papers 24-4, Bank of Canada.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nyffenegger, Remo, 2024. "Central bank digital currency and bank intermediation: Medium of Exchange vs. Savings vehicle," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    2. Xiang, Lijin & Feng, Chao & Xiao, Zumian & Liu, Jianjian, 2024. "The impact of central bank digital currency on macroeconomic dynamics: A DSGE analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 141(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. Lin William Cong & Zhiguo He & Jiasun Li & Wei Jiang, 2021. "Decentralized Mining in Centralized Pools [Concentrating on the fall of the labor share]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(3), pages 1191-1235.
    5. Sofia Priazhkina & Samuel Palmer & Pablo Martín-Ramiro & Román Orús & Samuel Mugel & Vladimir Skavysh, 2024. "Digital Payments in Firm Networks: Theory of Adoption and Quantum Algorithm," Staff Working Papers 24-17, Bank of Canada.
    6. Wu, Xiangling & Ding, Shusheng, 2023. "The impact of the Bitcoin price on carbon neutrality: Evidence from futures markets," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    7. Raphael A. Auer & Cyril Monnet & Hyun Song Shin, 2021. "Distributed Ledgers and the Governance of Money," CESifo Working Paper Series 9441, CESifo.
    8. James A. Clouse, 2024. "A Field Guide to Monetary Policy Implementation Issues in a New World with CBDC, Stablecoin, and Narrow Banks," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2024-001, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    9. Bruno Biais & Christophe Bisière & Matthieu Bouvard & Catherine Casamatta & Albert J. Menkveld, 2023. "Equilibrium Bitcoin Pricing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 78(2), pages 967-1014, April.
    10. Iwasaki, Kohei, 2024. "Credibility of central banks in monetary economies," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    11. Carreras, Marc Dordal & Kawaguchi, Kohei & Jin, Siyuan & Guo, Haicheng, 2024. "Consumer Perceptions and Willingness to Adopt rCBDCs Before and After the e-HKD Pilot," SocArXiv vhktj_v1, Center for Open Science.
    12. Pablo D. Azar & Garth Baughman & Francesca Carapella & Jacob Gerszten & Arazi Lubis & JP Perez-Sangimino & David E. Rappoport & Chiara Scotti & Nathan Swem & Alexandros Vardoulakis & Aurite Werman, 2024. "The Financial Stability Implications of Digital Assets," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 30(2), pages 1-48, November.
    13. Osiebuni Collins OBU & Wilfred I. UKPERE, 2022. "The Implications of the Incursion of Cryptocurrency on the Effectiveness of Fiscal Policy," Review of Applied Socio-Economic Research, Pro Global Science Association, vol. 23(1), pages 134-150, June.
    14. Jermann, Urban J., 2021. "Cryptocurrencies and Cagan’s model of hyperinflation," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    15. Cong, Lin William & Mayer, Simon, 2022. "The Coming Battle of Digital Currencies," Applied Economics and Policy Working Paper Series 320020, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    16. Jonathan Chiu & Cyril Monnet, 2024. "Public and Private Money Creation for Distributed Ledgers: Stablecoins, Tokenized Deposits, or Central Bank Digital Currencies?," Staff Working Papers 24-35, Bank of Canada.
    17. Nicola Amendola & Luis Araujo & Leo Ferraris, 2024. "Physical vs Digital Currency: What's the Difference, Why it Matters," Working Papers 537, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics.
    18. Lashkaripour, Mohammadhossein, 2024. "Some stylized facts about bitcoin halving," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 69(PB).
    19. Bruno, August & Weber, Paige & Yates, Andrew J., 2023. "Can Bitcoin mining increase renewable electricity capacity?," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    20. Francesca Carapella & Jin-Wook Chang & Sebastian Infante & Melissa Leistra & Arazi Lubis & Alexandros Vardoulakis, 2024. "Financial Stability Implications of CBDC," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2024-021, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:u58ns_v1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.