Consensus game and consensus equilibrium in blockchain ecology
The goal of this paper is to establish a general framework for"Con-sensus Game"that characterizes the behavior of blockchain ecosystems,and to address behaviors of the"Mining Pool Gap Game",that is,we first give the characterizing and interpreting the behavior of"Consensus Equilibria",and establishing and explaining the stability of the blockchain platform itself with the positive answer based on the exis-tence of consensus equilibrium through the new concept called"consensus game"in the presence of mining gap(game)behavior,here,the blockchain ecosystem where"Gap Game"is located refers to a mining platform based on the consensus principle of"Proof of Work"(PoW)with longest chain rules(LCR)proposed by Nakamoto in 2008.Specif-ically,this paper first establishes the existence of general consensus equilibrium and the corresponding stability results for continuous operation of the blockchain ecosystem un-der general incentive mechanism conditions,based on the consensus game framework in the blockchain ecosystem.Then,combined with the three main factors involved in"mining Bitcoin"work,including work costs,reward mechanisms,and mining capabil-ities,from the perspective of mining miner(group)profits,it interprets and analyzes the potential impact of different embedding scenarios on the"gap game behavior"of mining miners(groups).The theoretical results and case analysis of this article indicate that by combining appropriate incentive compatibility mechanisms for different mining scenarios,the concept of consensus game(equilibrium)can obtain or form a consistent explanation and interpretation of mining behavior in different scenarios without simu-lation results of scenario data.In addition,we have reason to expect and believe that consensus games,combined with factors related to mining(group)profits,can help us build appropriate incentive compatibility mechanisms.By characterizing behaviors such as"interval behavior","branching chains",and"mining pool attacks",we can support the healthy development of the digital economy and promote the development of basic theories of consensus economics.
consensus gameconsensus equilibriumcooperative and non-cooperative gamesnakamoto consensusproof of workblockchain ecosystemsblockchain stabilitymining pool gap gamelongest chain rules(LCR)fork of blockchainincentive compati-bility
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
