incentive-network-simulator

In proof of work blockchain systems, there are strong incentives towards designing hardware that can mine faster and/or with less power consumption. There are two ways of taking advantage of such devices: one can use them to mine more coins with less power, or he can sell it to other miners. The two strategies are not independent, of course: if everybody has the boosting technology, the difficulty will rise, and it won't be an advantage anymore. On the other hand, if the boost is above a certain threshold, being used only by a small subset of miners might mean centralizing the system, with potentially dangerous consequences on the platform credibility. With this simulator it is possible to analyse the impact of different strategies to exploit a significant increase in mining hardware efficiency.