Miners who are engaged in the extraction of various cryptocurrencies, were able to earn millions of dollars without processing transactions. That is, they made a profit, actually doing nothing.
In the course of the study, experts checked the bitcoin, ether, Dash and Litecoin blockchains, and it turned out that these networks had earned more than 18 billion US dollars. After the fork and the formation of Bitcoin Cash, the miners received about 1 billion. At the same time, Zcash miners were able to earn more Bitcoin Cash earners, but now it’s difficult to talk about numbers, since this network has been little studied.
Since the advent of Bitcoin Cash, the miners have processed 3.3 thousand empty blocks. Each month, the processing of empty blocks in all major cryptocurrencies brings miners almost 5 million dollars.
Further, the main thing.
Bitcoin Retail Investors Holdings continues to increase.
Although institutions can still stand aside, the data on networks for Bitcoin addresses shows that the ratio of retail investors remains strong and in fact is a key growing group in stocks. Despite the fact that they still represent a small part of circulating supplies, at least in terms of the chain, month after month for addresses with 1 to 10 bitcoins, there has always been a positive increase in holdings, since in 2019 there was already an increase in growth after decline last year compared with previous years, in which annual growth averaged 35%.
Addresses containing anywhere from 1 to 10 bitcoins currently make up almost 10% of the current offer. These addresses, in accordance with the data obtained by Diar, showed a positive increase on an annualized basis (see Diagram).
Despite the explosion of the bubble, Bitcoin advances at these addresses increased by 5% from the peak of Bitcoin. From January 2017 to the present, the most popular group of targeted properties has increased by 38%, an average of 35% compared with 2015.
And although in 2018 there was a very small increase compared to previous years, a tiny 0.7%, the situation quickly began to grow with an increase of 3% of the addresses holding Bitcoins in the range of 1-10BTC since the beginning of the year.
The rounded numbers in smaller addresses, hardly those on stock exchanges and cold stores, reflect the attitude of retail investors. And if this trend continues, retail investor holdings may mark a significant supply volume, discovered on the network over the next few years only, currently valued at just over $ 6 billion.
It is a fact that 91% of addresses that have been selectively rounded to the nearest bitcoin have never performed an outgoing transaction (see Diagram). And on the other hand, those who made the outgoing transfer, left behind an accurate amount of bitcoins.
97% of addresses containing either 5 or 10 bitcoins have not moved since the moment they landed in wallets. However, this is just a small idea of 2% of bitcoins. But the growth was fairly obvious, although it is unlikely to be able to move the markets.
|| EVEN STEVEN SELL PRESSURE
While the numbers indicate a real zeal for retail investors to keep some bitcoins, most holdings were held in custody, as they are below current prices, mitigating possible downward price pressures.
55% of addresses containing exactly 5 bitcoins (about 60 thousand bitcoins) were placed in wallets until September 2017, when the average per month was $ 4000 / BTC. This number is 49% for addresses with 10BTC (88 thousand Bitcoins).
It also means that approximately 75,000 bitcoins are distributed to these “investment type addresses”, and not necessarily bought, while bitcoins were trading above current levels.
|| Depends on what you are looking at
The majority of circulating supplies, 48%, which are located at addresses from 10 to 1000 BTC, have seen a decline in stocks since last year (see the Chart).
Although these addresses may well belong to the exchanges, the main trend is quite clearly shifting down for larger addresses. And while it is slow, it may indicate a better distribution of bitcoin wealth.
It may also indicate the outcome of large investors and a lack of interest on the part of new big money.
Major miners cryptocurrency working on empty blocks.
Despite the fact that the share of cryptocurrency on large blockchains is still insignificant, the total income from the mining of empty blocks exceeded $ 300 million. Despite the annual decline in the number of empty blocks solved for Bitcoin, miners have already exceeded $ 100 million in revenue since 2012, without providing the real value of the network.
Revenues of miners from the most popular blockchains Proof-of-Work (PoW) have not earned more than 21 billion dollars since the launch of each network. Bitcoin, of course, accounts for more than half of all this (see the Chart).
Over the past few years, Bitcoin data broadcasting systems have improved significantly, which also allowed more transactions to enter the actual unit, rather than working on an empty one. The number of empty blocks has decreased by half since 2016 and decreased by almost 20% in 2018 compared with 2017.
It also gives some additional clues as to the reasons Bitcoin currently uses with a low commission - more blocks find transactions. And although fees today may be a small incentive for miners, as the reward continues to halve, each Satoshi will ultimately matter.
Bitcoin Cash, which has a smaller transaction volume, found an additional 3335 empty blocks since its Bitcoin fork in August 2017.
|| SOLUTION FOR ZERO
The value that is rewarded for empty blocks should be alarming, since revenues in large networks brought Proof-of-Nothing to miners from $ 335 million - the equivalent of $ 5 million per month.
|| LITECOIN HEAVY DUTY IN POCKETS
Litecoin gave the most to miners for the "solution" of empty blocks worth $ 125 million. Ethereum, 113 million dollars and Bitcoin had just passed over the $ 100 million mark this month.
Miners Ethereum earned more than $ 67 million. For empty blocks in 2017, of course, the biggest reward for the entire year among all the blockchains. But Ethereum made the most progress with a 95% drop in empty blocks mined in 2018 compared with 2017 (see the Graph).
Progress in less empty blocks aside, data does not flatter. Even a little overshadowing the discussion of energy consumption, this particular activity is an extremely inefficient part of the Proof-of-Work block chain networks, which reward resources for literally nothing.
An increase in transactions that has actually been observed lately is likely to be the key to resolving such issues.
