A brief survey of Cryptocurrency systems

Abstract

Cryptocurrencies have emerged as important financial software systems. They rely on a secure distributed ledger data structure; mining is an integral part of such systems. Mining adds records of past transactions to the distributed ledger known as Blockchain, allowing users to reach secure, robust consensus for each transaction. Mining also introduces wealth in the form of new units of currency. Cryptocurrencies lack a central authority to mediate transactions because they were designed as peer-to-peer systems. They rely on miners to validate transactions. Cryptocurrencies require strong, secure mining algorithms. In this paper we survey and compare and contrast current mining techniques as used by major Cryptocurrencies. We evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, and possible threats to each mining strategy. Overall, a perspective on how Cryptocurrencies mine, where they have comparable performance and assurance, and where they have unique threats and strengths are outlined.