Data collection

Currently, the data for the analysis of the different ledgers is collected through Google BigQuery .

Note that when saving results from BigQuery you should select the option "JSONL (newline delimited)".

Sample data & queries

Sample data for all blockchains can be found here. Alternatively, one can retrieve the data directly from BigQuery using the queries below.

Bitcoin

SELECT block_number as number, block_timestamp as timestamp, coinbase_param as identifiers, `bigquery-public-data.crypto_bitcoin.transactions`.outputs
FROM `bigquery-public-data.crypto_bitcoin.transactions`
JOIN `bigquery-public-data.crypto_bitcoin.blocks` ON `bigquery-public-data.crypto_bitcoin.transactions`.block_number = `bigquery-public-data.crypto_bitcoin.blocks`.number
WHERE is_coinbase is TRUE
AND timestamp > '2018-01-01'
ORDER BY timestamp

Bitcoin Cash

SELECT block_number as number, block_timestamp as timestamp, coinbase_param as identifiers, `bigquery-public-data.crypto_bitcoin_cash.transactions`.outputs
FROM `bigquery-public-data.crypto_bitcoin_cash.transactions`
JOIN `bigquery-public-data.crypto_bitcoin_cash.blocks` ON `bigquery-public-data.crypto_bitcoin_cash.transactions`.block_number = `bigquery-public-data.crypto_bitcoin_cash.blocks`.number
WHERE is_coinbase is TRUE
AND timestamp > '2018-01-01'
ORDER BY timestamp

Cardano

SELECT `iog-data-analytics.cardano_mainnet.block`.slot_no as number, `iog-data-analytics.cardano_mainnet.pool_offline_data`.ticker_name as identifiers, `iog-data-analytics.cardano_mainnet.block`.block_time as timestamp,`iog-data-analytics.cardano_mainnet.block`.pool_hash as reward_addresses
FROM `iog-data-analytics.cardano_mainnet.block`
LEFT JOIN `iog-data-analytics.cardano_mainnet.pool_offline_data` ON `iog-data-analytics.cardano_mainnet.block`.pool_hash = `iog-data-analytics.cardano_mainnet.pool_offline_data`.pool_hash
WHERE `iog-data-analytics.cardano_mainnet.block`.block_time > '2018-01-01'
ORDER BY `iog-data-analytics.cardano_mainnet.block`.block_time

Dogecoin

SELECT block_number as number, block_timestamp as timestamp, coinbase_param as identifiers, `bigquery-public-data.crypto_dogecoin.transactions`.outputs
FROM `bigquery-public-data.crypto_dogecoin.transactions`
JOIN `bigquery-public-data.crypto_dogecoin.blocks` ON `bigquery-public-data.crypto_dogecoin.transactions`.block_number = `bigquery-public-data.crypto_dogecoin.blocks`.number
WHERE is_coinbase is TRUE
AND timestamp > '2018-01-01'
ORDER BY timestamp

Ethereum

SELECT number, timestamp, miner as reward_addresses, extra_data as identifiers
FROM `bigquery-public-data.crypto_ethereum.blocks`
WHERE timestamp > '2018-01-01'
ORDER BY timestamp

Litecoin

SELECT block_number as number, block_timestamp as timestamp, coinbase_param as identifiers, `bigquery-public-data.crypto_litecoin.transactions`.outputs
FROM `bigquery-public-data.crypto_litecoin.transactions`
JOIN `bigquery-public-data.crypto_litecoin.blocks` ON `bigquery-public-data.crypto_litecoin.transactions`.block_number = `bigquery-public-data.crypto_litecoin.blocks`.number
WHERE is_coinbase is TRUE
AND timestamp > '2018-01-01'
ORDER BY timestamp

Tezos

SELECT level as number, timestamp, baker as reward_addresses
FROM `public-data-finance.crypto_tezos.blocks`
WHERE timestamp > '2018-01-01'
ORDER BY timestamp

Zcash

SELECT block_number as number, block_timestamp as timestamp, coinbase_param as identifiers, `bigquery-public-data.crypto_zcash.transactions`.outputs
FROM `bigquery-public-data.crypto_zcash.transactions`
JOIN `bigquery-public-data.crypto_zcash.blocks` ON `bigquery-public-data.crypto_zcash.transactions`.block_number = `bigquery-public-data.crypto_zcash.blocks`.number
WHERE is_coinbase is TRUE
AND timestamp > '2018-01-01'
ORDER BY timestamp

Automating the data collection process

Instead of executing each of these queries separately on the BigQuery console and saving the results manually, it is also possible to automate the process using a script and collect all relevant data in one go. Executing this script will run queries from this file.

IMPORTANT: the script uses service account credentials for authentication, therefore before running it, you need to generate the relevant credentials from Google, as described here and save your key in the root directory of the project under the name 'google-service-account-key.json'. There is a sample file that you can consult, which shows what your credentials are supposed to look like (but note that this is for informational purposes only, this file is not used in the code).

Once you have set up the credentials, you can just run the following command from the root directory to retrieve data for all supported blockchains:

python -m consensus_decentralization.collect_data

There are also two command line arguments that can be used to customize the data collection process:

  • ledgers accepts any number of the supported ledgers (case-insensitive). For example, adding --ledgers bitcoin results in collecting data only for Bitcoin, while --ledgers Bitcoin Ethereum Cardano would collect data for Bitcoin, Ethereum and Cardano. If the ledgers argument is omitted, then the default value is used, which is taken from the configuration file and typically corresponds to all supported blockchains.
  • --force-query forces the collection of all raw data files, even if the corresponding files already exist. By default, this flag is set to False and the script only fetches block data for some blockchain if the corresponding file does not already exist.