Bitcoin Pool-Hopping Detection

Overview & Synopsis

In the Bitcoin blockchain, rewarding methods for remunerating miners participating in a pool have to meet certain requirements in order to guarantee the proper functioning of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. In particular, these allocation rules reward pool participants in proportion to their contribution in the transaction validation process. Deployed rewarding methods met fairness concerns at the expense of vulnerability to miners exploiting pools' attractiveness for deciding when to mine for a pool and when to 'hop' to another one resulting more attractive: a phenomenon called pool-hopping. The most used score-based methods are designed to prevent this practice, but are not completely hopping proof. In this work, we propose a methodology to analyze the pool-hopping phenomenon, focusing on the detection of pool-hoppers. Analyzing those Bitcoin transactions that pools create for rewarding its participants, it is possible to determine time epochs where miners worked. Thus, we analyze those miners that have worked intermittently for pools adopting a rewarding system which pays out for each validated block. This evaluation leads us qualifying the miners that have hopped along with their hopping behavior and financial performance.