【正文】 020 low of less than $7 in December. All listed cryptocurrencies have increased their market value in this time window. Global Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Study 19 Figure 4: Market prices of DASH, monero (XMR) and ether (ETH) have experienced the most significant growth since June 2020 Data sourced from CryptoCompare6 Note: the price multiplier variable shows the price evolution of each cryptocurrency since the beginni ng of June 2020. A value above 1 means that the price has increased by this factor, whereas a value below 1 indicates that the price has decreased during the specified time window. Bitcoin (BTC) Ether (ETH) DASH Monero (XMR) Ripple (XRP) Litecoin (LTC) Figure 5: Are ETH and DASH being the preferred ‘safe haven’ assets as Bitcoin’s scaling debate heats up or is their price rise a sign of growing interest in other cryptocurrencies? Data sourced from CoinDanc e7 and CryptoCompare Number of Bitcoin Unlimited Nodes (left axis) DASH (right axis) Ether (right axis) Bitcoin (right axis) Setting the Scene 20 Table 1: Average daily number of transactions for largest cryptocurrencies Bitcoin Ethereum DASH Ripple Monero Litecoin Q1 2020 201,595 20,242 1,582 N/A 579 4,453 Q2 2020 221,018 40,895 1,184 N/A 435 5,520 Q3 2020 219,624 45,109 1,549 N/A 1,045 3,432 Q4 2020 261,710 42,908 1,238 N/A 1,598 3,455 January February 2017 286,419 47,792 1,800 。 generally payments are denominated in cryptocurrency, but can also be exchanged to national currencies ? Merchant services: services that process payments for cryptocurrencyaccepting merchants, and provide additional merchant services (., shopping cart integrations, pointofsale terminals) ? Generalpurpose cryptocurrency platform: platforms that perform a variety of cryptocurrency transfer services (., instant payments to other users of the same platform using cryptocurrency and/or national currencies, payroll, bill payment services) MINING ? Mining value chain: the cryptocurrency mining sector is posed of the following principal activities: ? Mining hardware manufacturing: design and building of specialised mining equipment ? Selfmining: miners running their own equipment to find valid blocks ? Cloud mining services: services that rent out hashing power to customers ? Remote hosting services: services that host and maintain customerowned mining equipment ? Mining pool: structure that bines putational resources from multiple miners to increase the frequency and likelihood of finding a valid block。 Strategic Partnerships 4 It is my great pleasure to present the first global cryptocurrency benchmarking study. The findings from our study are based on the collection of nonpublic data from nearly 150 panies and individuals, and this report offers new insights on an innovative and rapidly evolving sector of the economy. Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin have been seen by some as merely a passing fad or insignificant, but that view is increasingly at odds with the data we are observing. As of April 2017, the bined market value of all cryptocurrencies is $27 billion, which represents a level of value creation on the order of Silicon Valley success stories like AirBnB. The advent of cryptocurrency has also sparked many new business platforms with sizable valuations of their own, along with new forms of peertopeer economic activity. Next year will mark the tenyear anniversary of the publication of Satoshi Nakamoto’s paper describing how a new digital financial instrument could be created and operated securely with a blockchain. The growing usage and range of capabilities we document in this study indicate that cryptocurrencies are taking on an ever more important role in the lives of a growing number of people (and machines) around the world. As we show in this study, the number of people using cryptocurrency today has seen significant growth and rivals the population of small countries. By our count, over 300 academic articles have been published on various aspects of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies over the past several years. However, these works tend to take a narrow focus. To our knowledge this is the first global cryptocurrency study based on non public ‘offchain’ data. We designed the study to present an empirical picture of the current state of this still maturing industry, and to explore how cryptocurrencies are being used today. The findings from this study will be useful to industry, academics, policymakers, media, and anyone seeking to better understand the cryptocurrency landscape. This study would not have been possible without the support and participation from nearly 150 cryptocurrency panies and individuals that contributed data, many of which have elected to have their logos displayed in this report. This study also greatly benefitted from suggestions and support we received from many individuals and firms we recognise in the Acknowledgements. We are grateful for the trust placed by study participants in the University of Cambridge research team. We are looking forward to continuing and expanding our cryptocurrency and blockchain research program. In a few weeks, we will also be publishing the results of a separate study focused on the use of distributed ledger technology (DLT), which examines the use of DLT by more established industry players as well as at public sector institutions such as central banks. Thank you for your interest in this study. We will be conducting these benchmarking studies on an annual basis, and I wele your ments and feedback.