Papers
Topics
Authors
Recent
Gemini 2.5 Flash
Gemini 2.5 Flash 87 tok/s
Gemini 2.5 Pro 44 tok/s Pro
GPT-5 Medium 35 tok/s
GPT-5 High 38 tok/s Pro
GPT-4o 85 tok/s
GPT OSS 120B 468 tok/s Pro
Kimi K2 203 tok/s Pro
2000 character limit reached

Measuring the Concentration of Control in Contemporary Ethereum (2312.14562v1)

Published 22 Dec 2023 in econ.TH

Abstract: Ethereum is undergoing significant changes to its architecture as it evolves. These changes include its switch to PoS consensus and the introduction of significant infrastructural changes that do not require a change to the core protocol, but that fundamentally affect the way users interact with the network. These changes represent an evolution toward a more modular architecture, in which there exists new exogenous vectors for centralization. This paper builds on previous studies of decentralization of Ethereum to reflect these recent significant changes, and Ethereum's new modular paradigm.

Definition Search Book Streamline Icon: https://streamlinehq.com
References (65)
  1. Everett M Rogers “Diffusion of innovations” SimonSchuster, 2010
  2. “Measuring decentrality in blockchain based systems” In IEEE Access 8 IEEE, 2020, pp. 178372–178390
  3. “Measuring decentralization in bitcoin and ethereum using multiple metrics and granularities” In 2021 IEEE 37th International Conference on Data Engineering Workshops (ICDEW), 2021, pp. 80–87 IEEE
  4. Dimitris Karakostas, Aggelos Kiayias and Christina Ovezik “SoK: A Stratified Approach to Blockchain Decentralization” In arXiv preprint arXiv:2211.01291, 2022
  5. EigenLayer Team “EigenLayer: The Restaking Collective” URL: https://docs.eigenlayer.xyz/overview/whitepaper
  6. “Ethereum Distributed Validator Specifications”, 2021 URL: https://github.com/ethereum/distributed-validator-specs
  7. Balaji S. Srinivasan and Leland Lee “Quantifying Decentralization”, 2018 URL: https://news.earn.com/quantifying-decentralization-e39db233c28e
  8. Stephane [thegostep] Gosselin “MEV-Boost: Merge ready Flashbots Architecture”, 2021 URL: https://ethresear.ch/t/mev-boost-merge-ready-flashbots-architecture/11177
  9. Ethereum “Proposer-builder separation — ethereum.org” URL: https://ethereum.org/en/roadmap/pbs/
  10. Ethereum “Specification for the external block builders.” URL: https://github.com/ethereum/builder-specs
  11. Vitalik Buterin “Proposer/block builder separation-friendly fee market designs”, 2021 URL: https://ethresear.ch/t/proposer-block-builder-separation-friendly-fee-market-designs/9725
  12. Hasu “Understanding liveness risks from mev-boost”, 2022 URL: https://writings.flashbots.net/understanding-mev-boost-liveness-risks
  13. Lebyrs “MEV Watch” URL: https://www.mevwatch.info/
  14. “SoK: MEV Countermeasures: Theory and Practice”, 2022 arXiv:2212.05111 [cs.CR]
  15. Vitalik Buterin “State of research: increasing censorship resistance of transactions under proposer/builder separation (PBS) - HackMD” URL: https://notes.ethereum.org/@vbuterin/pbs_censorship_resistance
  16. Gavin John “ERC-6315: ERC-2771 Account Abstraction [DRAFT]” In Ethereum Improvement Proposals, 2023 URL: https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-6315
  17. “EIP-3074: AUTH and AUTHCALL opcodes [DRAFT]” In Ethereum Improvement Proposals, 2020 URL: https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-3074
  18. “EIP-2938: Account Abstraction [DRAFT]” In Ethereum Improvement Proposals, 2020 URL: https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-2938
  19. “ERC-4337: Account Abstraction Using Alt Mempool [DRAFT]” In Ethereum Improvement Proposals, 2021 URL: https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-4337
  20. Vitalik Buterin “A rollup-centric ethereum roadmap”, 2020 URL: https://ethereum-magicians.org/t/a-rollup-centric-ethereum-roadmap/4698
  21. Jan Gorzny, Lin Po-An and Martin Derka “Ideal properties of rollup escape hatches” In Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Distributed Infrastructure for the Common Good, 2022, pp. 7–12
  22. Vitalik Buterin “Don’t overload Ethereum’s consensus”, 2023 URL: https://vitalik.ca/general/2023/05/21/dont_overload.html
  23. Polynya “Staking issuance is not net neutral”, 2022 URL: https://polynya.mirror.xyz/TpwvhuW8UsLovTAG-6EMx97cHCFBhqFs9VYgQ75qsZw
  24. “Empirical analysis of eip-1559: Transaction fees, waiting time, and consensus security” In arXiv preprint arXiv:2201.05574, 2022
  25. Kose John, Thomas J Rivera and Fahad Saleh “Equilibrium staking levels in a proof-of-stake blockchain” In Available at SSRN 3965599, 2021
  26. Ben Edgington “Upgrading Ethereum”, 2023 URL: https://eth2book.info/capella/annotated-spec/#reward-and-penalty-calculations
  27. Eric Wall “Privacy and Cryptocurrency, Part IV: Stablecoins— Blacklists and Traceability”, 2021 URL: https://medium.com/human-rights-foundation-hrf/privacy-and-cryptocurrency-part-iv-stablecoins-for-human-rights-blacklists-and-traceability-6d74ee17c25d
  28. Corrado Gini “On the measure of concentration with special reference to income and statistics” In Colorado College Publication, General Series 208.1 Colorado College, Colorado Springs, 1936, pp. 73–79
  29. Ashish Rajendra Sai, Jim Buckley and Andrew Le Gear “Characterizing wealth inequality in cryptocurrencies” In Frontiers in Blockchain 4 Frontiers Media SA, 2021, pp. 730122
  30. “DQ: Two approaches to measure the degree of decentralization of blockchain” In ICT Express 7.3 Elsevier, 2021, pp. 278–282
  31. “Gini coefficient based wealth distribution in the bitcoin network: A case study” In Computing, Analytics and Networks: First International Conference, ICAN 2017, Chandigarh, India, October 27-28, 2017, Revised Selected Papers 1, 2018, pp. 192–202 Springer
  32. “How centralized is decentralized? Comparison of wealth distribution in coins and tokens” In 2022 IEEE International Conference on Omni-layer Intelligent Systems (COINS), 2022, pp. 1–6 IEEE
  33. “Impossibility of full decentralization in permissionless blockchains” In Proceedings of the 1st ACM Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies, 2019, pp. 110–123
  34. “Inclusion and democratization through web3 and defi? initial evidence from the ethereum ecosystem”, 2023
  35. Luyao Zhang, Xinshi Ma and Yulin Liu “SoK: Blockchain Decentralization” In arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.04256, 2022
  36. “The evolution of centralisation on cryptocurrency platforms” In arXiv preprint arXiv:2206.05081, 2022
  37. Max O Lorenz “Methods of measuring the concentration of wealth” In Publications of the American statistical association 9.70 Taylor & Francis, 1905, pp. 209–219
  38. GOCHA TUTBERIDZE, QETEVAN PIPIA and GIVI Rakviashvili “The measuring of the Gini, Theil and Atkinson indices for Georgia Republic and some other countries” In Globalization and Business 5, 2018, pp. 110–19
  39. Matt Kalinski “The Newton-Leibnitz theorem”, 2016
  40. Joseph L Gastwirth “The estimation of the Lorenz curve and Gini index” In The review of economics and statistics JSTOR, 1972, pp. 306–316
  41. The United States Department Justice “Horizontal Merger Guidelines (08/19/2010)”, 2015 URL: https://www.justice.gov/atr/horizontal-merger-guidelines-08192010#5c
  42. Claude E Shannon “The Mathematical Theory of Communication; Shannon, CE, Weaver, W., Eds” In The mathematical theory of communication, 1998, pp. 29–125
  43. Henri Theil “Economics and information theory”, 1967
  44. “Harnessing the Fifth Element of Distributional Statistics for Psychological Science: A Practical Primer and Shiny App for Measures of Statistical Inequality and Concentration” In Frontiers in Psychology 12 Frontiers Media SA, 2021, pp. 716164
  45. Anthony B Atkinson “On the measurement of inequality” In Journal of economic theory 2.3, 1970, pp. 244–263
  46. José Gabriel Palma “Homogeneous middles vs. heterogeneous tails, and the end of the ‘inverted-U’: It’s all about the share of the rich” In development and Change 42.1 Wiley Online Library, 2011, pp. 87–153
  47. Jim Frost “Percentiles: Interpretations and Calculations” In Statistics By Jim, 2023 URL: https://statisticsbyjim.com/basics/percentiles
  48. Jianhua Lin “Divergence measures based on the Shannon entropy” In IEEE Transactions on Information theory 37.1 IEEE, 1991, pp. 145–151
  49. “Why enshrine Proposer-Builder Separation? A viable path to ePBS”, 2023 URL: https://ethresear.ch/t/why-enshrine-proposer-builder-separation-a-viable-path-to-epbs/15710/20
  50. Hildobby “ETH Stakers” Dune Analytics URL: https://dune.com/queries/2394100/3928083
  51. Vitalik Buterin “Proof of Stake” National Geographic Books, 2022
  52. “Post-Mortem Report: Ethereum Mainnet Finality (05/11/2023)” Offchain Labs, 2023 URL: https://offchain.medium.com/post-mortem-report-ethereum-mainnet-finality-05-11-2023-95e271dfd8b2#:~:text=Summary,and%20incurred%20an%20inactivity%20penalty.
  53. Hanni Abu “Client Diversity — Ethereum” URL: https://clientdiversity.org/#distribution
  54. “Lido on Ethereum Validator & Node metrics” URL: https://app.hex.tech/8dedcd99-17f4-49d8-944e-4857a355b90a/app/3f7d6967-3ef6-4e69-8f7b-d02d903f045b/latest
  55. Checkmate “The Week On-chain (Week 18, 2021)” In Glassnode Insights - On-Chain Market Intelligence, 2021 URL: https://insights.glassnode.com/the-week-on-chain-week-18-2021/
  56. “DefiLlama” URL: https://defillama.com/chain/Ethereum
  57. Ruholamin Haqshanas “Tornado Cashs USDC Frozen as Stablecoin Censorship Fears Grow” In Tokenist, 2022 URL: https://tokenist.com/tornado-cashs-usdc-frozen-as-stablecoin-censorship-fears-grow/
  58. Nikhilesh De “Circle confirms freezing 100K in USDC at law enforcements request”, 2022 URL: https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2020/07/08/circle-confirms-freezing-100k-in-usdc-at-law-enforcements-request/
  59. Ethereum “How The Merge impacted ETH supply — ethereum.org” URL: https://ethereum.org/en/roadmap/merge/issuance/
  60. “Ultra Sound money” URL: https://ultrasound.money/
  61. “Open Source Ethereum Blockchain Explorer - Beaconcha.in - 2023” URL: https://beaconcha.in/
  62. “Ether Supply Growth Chart” URL: https://etherscan.io/chart/ethersupplygrowth
  63. Barnabé Monnot “Seeing like a protocol”, 2023 URL: https://barnabe.substack.com/p/seeing-like-a-protocol
  64. OECD “Methodologies to measure market competition” In OECD Competition Committee Issues, 2021 URL: https://www.oecd.org/daf/competition/methodologies-to-measure-market-competition.htm
  65. Simon Brown “Simon Brown - Presentation @ PBS Salon :: ETHCC 2023”, 2023 URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUzcN3Mp-6E
Citations (1)
View on Semantic Scholar
List To Do Tasks Checklist Streamline Icon: https://streamlinehq.com

Collections

Sign up for free to add this paper to one or more collections.

User Circle Single Streamline Icon: https://streamlinehq.com Sign Up

Summary

We haven't generated a summary for this paper yet.

Ai Sparkles Streamline Icon: https://streamlinehq.com Summarize Now
Dice Question Streamline Icon: https://streamlinehq.com

Follow-up Questions

We haven't generated follow-up questions for this paper yet.

Ai Sparkles Streamline Icon: https://streamlinehq.com Generate Now

Authors (1)

  1. Simon Brown