Analyzing Reward Dynamics and Decentralization in Ethereum 2.0: an Advanced Data Engineering Workflow and Comprehensive Datasets for Proof-of-Stake Incentives

Ethereum 2.0, as the preeminent smart contract blockchain platform,guarantees the precise execution of applications without third-partyintervention. At its core, this system leverages the Proof-of-Stake (PoS)consensus mechanism, which utilizes a stochastic process to select validatorsfor block proposal and validation, consequently rewarding them for theircontributions. However, the implementation of blockchain technology oftendiverges from its central tenet of decentralized consensus, presentingsignificant analytical challenges. Our study collects consensus reward datafrom the Ethereum Beacon chain and conducts a comprehensive analysis of rewarddistribution and evolution, categorizing them into attestation, proposer andsync committee rewards. To evaluate the degree of decentralization in PoSEthereum, we apply several inequality indices, including the Shannon entropy,the Gini Index, the Nakamoto Coefficient, and the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index(HHI). Our comprehensive dataset is publicly available on Harvard Dataverse,and our analytical methodologies are accessible via GitHub, promotingopen-access research. Additionally, we provide insights on utilizing our datafor future investigations focused on assessing, augmenting, and refining thedecentralization, security, and efficiency of blockchain systems.