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Bitcoin: An Axiomatic Approach and an Impossibility Theorem

Author

Listed:
  • Jacob D. Leshno
  • Philipp Strack

Abstract

Bitcoin's main innovation lies in allowing a decentralized system that relies on anonymous, profit-driven miners who can freely join the system. We formalize these properties in three axioms: anonymity of miners, no incentives for miners to consolidate, and no incentive to assuming multiple fake identities. This novel axiomatic formalization allows us to characterize what other protocols are feasible: every protocol with these properties must have the same reward scheme as Bitcoin. This implies an impossibility result for risk-averse miners. Furthermore, any protocol either gives up on some degree of decentralization or its reward scheme is equivalent to Bitcoin's.

Suggested Citation

  • Jacob D. Leshno & Philipp Strack, 2020. "Bitcoin: An Axiomatic Approach and an Impossibility Theorem," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 2(3), pages 269-286, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aerins:v:2:y:2020:i:3:p:269-86
    DOI: 10.1257/aeri.20190494
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    Cited by:

    1. Hanna Halaburda & Guillaume Haeringer & Joshua Gans & Neil Gandal, 2022. "The Microeconomics of Cryptocurrencies," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 971-1013, September.
    2. Kim, Daehan & Ryu, Doojin & Webb, Robert I., 2023. "Determination of equilibrium transaction fees in the Bitcoin network: A rank-order contest," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    3. Auer, Raphael & Shin, Hyun Song & Monnet, Cyril, 2021. "Distributed Ledgers and the Governance of Money," CEPR Discussion Papers 16752, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Jean-Gabriel Lauzier & Liyuan Lin & Ruodu Wang, 2023. "Pairwise counter-monotonicity," Papers 2302.11701, arXiv.org, revised May 2023.
    5. Lauzier, Jean-Gabriel & Lin, Liyuan & Wang, Ruodu, 2023. "Pairwise counter-monotonicity," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 279-287.
    6. Auer, Raphael & Tercero-Lucas, David, 2022. "Distrust or speculation? The socioeconomic drivers of U.S. cryptocurrency investments," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    7. A. Mantovi, 2021. "Bitcoin selection rule and foundational game theoretic representation of mining competition," Economics Department Working Papers 2021-EP02, Department of Economics, Parma University (Italy).
    8. Joshua S. Gans & Richard T. Holden, 2022. "Mechanism Design Approaches to Blockchain Consensus," NBER Working Papers 30189, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Edith Elkind & Abheek Ghosh & Paul W. Goldberg, 2024. "Continuous-Time Best-Response and Related Dynamics in Tullock Contests with Convex Costs," Papers 2402.08541, arXiv.org.
    10. Schilling, Linda & Fernandez-Villaverde, Jesus & Uhlig, Harald, 2020. "Central Bank Digital Currency: When price and bank stability collide," MPRA Paper 113248, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 May 2022.
    11. Altuntaş, Açelya & Phan, William & Tamura, Yuki, 2023. "Some characterizations of Generalized Top Trading Cycles," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 156-181.
    12. Feng, Wenjun & Zhang, Zhengjun, 2023. "Currency exchange rate predictability: The new power of Bitcoin prices," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    13. Benigno, Pierpaolo & Schilling, Linda M. & Uhlig, Harald, 2022. "Cryptocurrencies, currency competition, and the impossible trinity," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    14. Osiebuni Collins OBU & Wilfred I. UKPERE, 2022. "The Implications of the Incursion of Cryptocurrency on the Effectiveness of Fiscal Policy," Review of Applied Socio-Economic Research, Pro Global Science Association, vol. 23(1), pages 134-150, June.
    15. Marcelo A. T. Aragão, 2021. "A Few Things You Wanted to Know about the Economics of CBDCs, but were Afraid to Model: a survey of what we can learn from who has done," Working Papers Series 554, Central Bank of Brazil, Research Department.
    16. Joshua S. Gans & Hanna Halaburda, 2023. ""Zero Cost'' Majority Attacks on Permissionless Blockchains," NBER Working Papers 31473, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Sergey Goncharov & Andrey Nechesov, 2023. "Axiomatization of Blockchain Theory," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-16, July.
    18. Can, Burak & Leth Hougaard, Jens & Pourpouneh, Mohsen, 2022. "On reward sharing in blockchain mining pools," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 274-298.
    19. Abheek Ghosh & Paul W. Goldberg, 2023. "Best-Response Dynamics in Lottery Contests," Papers 2305.10881, arXiv.org.
    20. Zhanyi Jiao & Steven Kou & Yang Liu & Ruodu Wang, 2022. "An axiomatic theory for anonymized risk sharing," Papers 2208.07533, arXiv.org, revised May 2023.
    21. Raphael Auer & Cyril Monnet & Hyun Song Shin, 2021. "Permissioned Distributed Ledgers and the Governance of Money," Diskussionsschriften dp2101, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
    22. Anton Badev & Cy Watsky, 2023. "Interconnected DeFi: Ripple Effects from the Terra Collapse," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2023-044, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    23. Jean-Gabriel Lauzier & Liyuan Lin & Ruodu Wang, 2024. "Negatively dependent optimal risk sharing," Papers 2401.03328, arXiv.org.
    24. Nicola Dimitri, 2022. "The Economics of Consensus in Algorand," FinTech, MDPI, vol. 1(2), pages 1-16, May.
    25. Stinner, Jona & Tyrell, Marcel, 2022. "Proof-Of-Work Consensus Under Exogenous Distress: Evidence from Mining Shocks in the Bitcoin Ecosystem," VfS Annual Conference 2022 (Basel): Big Data in Economics 264115, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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