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PROOF OF WORK

Mining gaps

An interactive companion to our paper ↗

What happens when Bitcoin runs on fees?

Bitcoin pays miners with new coins, called the block subsidy. Every four years it is cut in half, so fees must make up the difference.
Right after a block is found, few fees are left, and miners may wait. This wait is the mining gap.

Follow a miner and an investor to see what makes the mining gap shorter or longer.

I’d invest.

Mining

The miner

Adjust parameters ⌄
Expected mining gap now
After the investor acts

Expected revenue

Mining
How it works
The investor’s notebook

The investor

He buys machines when expected revenue covers electricity and machine ownership costs together.

“What net profit can I expect from owning one unit of hashpower for one round?”

A round is the time between two consecutive blocks. It lasts ten minutes on average. These are expected amounts in dollars. A single round can pay more or less.