Bitcoin Blockchain Technology With Focus On FPGA Miners

Abstract:

Bitcoin is decentralized payment system and the most famous cryptocurrency which has a peer-to-peer network that operates on a cryptographic protocol. Bitcoin does not rely on any centralized entity like banks or governments to ensure the system reliability. Users send and receive bitcoins (the units of currency), directly from person to person, by broadcasting digitally signed messages to the network. Transactions are recorded into a distributed, replicated public database known as the blockchain, with consensus achieved by a proof-of-work system called mining, where miners are rearward for computing power spent to support the network. In this paper we discuss the bitcoin technology, process of Bitcoin mining, and mining hardware with focus on FPGA miners.

Research Aim:

The main objectives of this project are as follows.

• Learn about the bitcoin network and payment system
• Study cryptography basics, Cryptographic Hash Functions properties, data structures based on cryptography (Blockchain), and digital signature.
• Analyze bitcoin mining algorithm and SHA-256
• Study mining concept and compare the advantages of implementing bitcoin mining in different hardware.
• Learn about what FPGA is, describe the architecture of it, and how is the usage and applications of it in bitcoin mining compare to other hardware.

Keywords:

Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, FPGA, Cryptography, Hash function, SHA256, Blockchain, Digital signature, Mining.

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Table of Contents

1-INTRODUCTION

2-CRYPTOGRAPHY

2.1-Cryptographic Hash Functions
    Property 1: Collision Resistance
    Property 2: Hiding - Preimage resistance (one wayness)
    Property 3: Puzzle Friendliness - Target Collision Resistance
    SHA-256
2.2-HASH POINTERS AND DATA STRUCTURES
   Hash pointer
   Block chain
   Merkle tree
2.3-DIGITAL SIGNATURES
   Digital signature scheme
   ECDSA
   Public Keys as Identities

3-BITCOIN MECHANISM & NETWORK

3.1-Bitcoin in use
3.2-Bitcoin Concepts
    Transactions
    Timestamp Server
    Proof-of-Work
    Bitcoin Mining in summary
    Consensus mechanism
    Privacy
3.3-Bitcoin blockchain data structure
    Block Header

4-BITCOIN MINING

4.1-The task of Bitcoin miners
    Finding a valid block
    Difficulty
4.2-Mining Hardware
    A closer look at SHA‐256
    CPU mining
GPU mining
FPGA mining
ASIC mining

5-FPGA

5.1-Introduction
    Requirement of FPGAs
5.2-Architecture and Structure of FPGA
    Internal Architecture of LUT
    Routing Architecture - switch matrix
    Additional Elements In Contemporary FPGA Architectures
5.3-FPGA Programming
    HDL & Synthesize
    Translate process
    Map process
    Place and Route
    Device Programming - Bitstream Generation
5.4-FPGAs Vs ASICs
5.5-FPGA As Bitcoin Miner
    FPGA mining versus GPU and CPU and ASIC mining
    Profitability of FPGA mining

6-CONCLUSION

    Professional mining
    Mining hardware evolution: Similarities to gold mining
    A look to the future - The cycle repeats itself

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By MOHAMMAD NIKNAM 2021-2022