MiningVis: Visual Analytics of the Bitcoin Mining Economy

Fig. 1. A screenshot of the MiningVis tool. (V1) The time filter view allows analysts to select a time interval of interest. (V2) The mining distribution view shows the evolution of the mining pools as a ribbon chart. (V3) The mining pool details view shows mining power and pool characteristics for each mining pool in a compound chart. (V4) The Bitcoin statistics view shows Bitcoin network statistics as a list of area charts (see Fig. 4). (V5) The Bitcoin news view displays a swarm plot of the news distribution over time. (V6) The cross pooling view represents the total reward of cross pooling miners in mining pools at the time interval on a chord diagram.

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.