Understanding Ethereum’s Default Miner Implementation: Pay-to-Public-Key
Ethereum, a decentralized platform for building smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps), is powered by its own cryptocurrency, Ether (ETH). One of the key components that allows the Ethereum network to function is the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm. Under the hood, however, Ethereum’s default miner implementation uses a more efficient and secure protocol:
Pay-to-Public-Key (P2PK).
In this article, we will understand why the Ethereum network uses P2PK by default for its mining process.
What is Proof-of-Work (PoW)?
PoW is a consensus algorithm that requires nodes on the Ethereum network to solve complex mathematical puzzles. The first node to solve these puzzles validates transactions and adds them to the blockchain. This validation process is what we call “mining.”
Why pay with a public key?
The Ethereum team chose P2PK over other alternatives such as
Public Key Cryptography (PKC) or
SHA-256-based Proof of Stake (PoS) for several reasons:
- Security: P2PK is considered more secure than traditional public key cryptography because it does not require nodes to store a large number of private keys. This reduces the risk of a key being compromised and makes it more difficult for an attacker to use brute force attacks to guess the private key.
- Scalability: While PKC-based protocols such as SHA-256 have shown promise, they are less scalable than PoS due to the computational power required to calculate the hashes.
- Energy Efficiency: P2PK is a more energy efficient consensus algorithm because it requires nodes to spend their own coins to verify a transaction, rather than relying on external mining pools.
Source v0.9.3: Preview of Miner.cpp
To get an overview of the default miner implementation on the Ethereum network, let’s take a look at the miner.cpp file from the v0.9.3 source code repository.
// Function CreateNewBlockWithKey
CBlockTemplate* CreateNewBlockWithKey(CReserveKey& reservekey)
{
CPubKey pubkey;
if (!reservekey.GetReservedKey(pubkey))
return NULL;
// ... (rest of the code remains the same)
// Initialize the block template with a new P2PK hash function
m_p2pHmac = CreateP2pHMAC();
}
The CreateNewBlockWithKey function initializes an instance of CBlockTemplate, which represents a new block on the Ethereum blockchain. This function calls another function, CreateP2pHMAC(), to create a P2PK-based hash function.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the default Ethereum miner implementation uses
Pay-to-Public-Key (P2PK) due to its security, scalability, and energy efficiency advantages over traditional public-key cryptography. The miner.cpp file provides an overview of how this implementation works and why it has become a standard part of the Ethereum network.
Additional Resources
To learn more about Ethereum consensus algorithms and their implementations:
- [Ethereum 1.0 Specification](
- [Ethereum Mining Guide](
Note: The code provided is subject to change and may not reflect the current state of the Ethereum blockchain.