New kids on the block: an analysis of modern blockchains Luke Anderson∗, Ralph Holz∗, Alexander Ponomarev†, Paul Rimba†, Ingo Weber† ∗University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia †Data61/CSIRO, Sydney, Australia ∗{l.anderson,ralph.holz}@sydney.edu.au †fi
[email protected] ABSTRACT a network of untrusted nodes. A majority of these nodes Half a decade after Bitcoin became the first widely used need to act faithfully to the respective blockchain pro- cryptocurrency, blockchains are receiving considerable in- tocol in order to secure the operation of the blockchain terest from industry and the research community. Modern as a whole. blockchains feature services such as name registration and Bitcoin’s asset is the Bitcoin currency (BTC) and the smart contracts. Some employ new forms of consensus, such trusted centralised entity it attempts to replace is the as proof-of-stake instead of proof-of-work. However, these traditional bank. Newer blockchains provide more intri- blockchains are so far relatively poorly investigated, despite cate features, such as Namecoin’s attempt at providing the fact that they move considerable assets. In this paper, we decentralised name registration, or Ethereum’s globally explore three representative, modern blockchains—Ethereum, distributed Ethereum Virtual Machine that allows ex- Namecoin, and Peercoin. Our focus is on the features that ecuting code in the form of so-called smart contracts set them apart from the pure currency use case of Bitcoin. on the Ethereum network. Perceptions of blockchains We investigate the blockchains’ activity in terms of trans- are varied, with opinions ranging from highly sceptical actions and usage patterns, identifying some curiosities in to enthusiastic.