Structure and Anonymity of the Bitcoin Transaction Graph

Micha Ober, Stefan Katzenbeisser and Kay Hamacher
Additional contact information
Micha Ober: Department of Computer Science, TU Darmstadt, Hochschulstr. 10, D-64289 Darmstadt, Germany
Stefan Katzenbeisser: Department of Computer Science, TU Darmstadt, Hochschulstr. 10, D-64289 Darmstadt, Germany
Kay Hamacher: Department of Computer Science, TU Darmstadt, Hochschulstr. 10, D-64289 Darmstadt, Germany

Future Internet, 2013, vol. 5, issue 2, 1-14

Abstract: The Bitcoin network of decentralized payment transactions has attracted a lot of attention from both Internet users and researchers in recent years. Bitcoin utilizes a peer-to-peer network to issue anonymous payment transactions between different users. In the currently used Bitcoin clients, the full transaction history is available at each node of the network to prevent double spending without the need for a central authority, forming a valuable source for empirical research on network structure, network dynamics, and the implied anonymity challenges, as well as guidance on the future evolution of complex payment systems. We found dynamical effects of which some increase anonymity while others decrease it. Most importantly, several parameters of the Bitcoin transaction graph seem to have become stationary over the last 12–18 months. We discuss the implications.

Keywords: graph structure; Bitcoin; network dynamics; anonymity; privacy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/5/2/237/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/5/2/237/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jftint:v:5:y:2013:i:2:p:237-250:d:25524

Access Statistics for this article

Future Internet is currently edited by Ms. Grace You

More articles in Future Internet from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().