Towards open data blockchain analytics: a Bitcoin perspective
Bitcoin is the first implementation of a technology that has become known as a ‘public permissionless’ blockchain. Such systems allow public read/write access to an append-only blockchain database without the need for any mediating central authority. Instead, they guarantee access, security and prot...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
The Royal Society
2018-01-01
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| Series: | Royal Society Open Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.180298 |
| _version_ | 1818348045566214144 |
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| author | D. McGinn D. McIlwraith Y. Guo |
| author_facet | D. McGinn D. McIlwraith Y. Guo |
| author_sort | D. McGinn |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Bitcoin is the first implementation of a technology that has become known as a ‘public permissionless’ blockchain. Such systems allow public read/write access to an append-only blockchain database without the need for any mediating central authority. Instead, they guarantee access, security and protocol conformity through an elegant combination of cryptographic assurances and game theoretic economic incentives. Not until the advent of the Bitcoin blockchain has such a trusted, transparent, comprehensive and granular dataset of digital economic behaviours been available for public network analysis. In this article, by translating the cumbersome binary data structure of the Bitcoin blockchain into a high fidelity graph model, we demonstrate through various analyses the often overlooked social and econometric benefits of employing such a novel open data architecture. Specifically, we show: (i) how repeated patterns of transaction behaviours can be revealed to link user activity across the blockchain; (ii) how newly mined bitcoin can be associated to demonstrate individual accumulations of wealth; (iii) through application of the naïve quantity theory of money that Bitcoin's disinflationary properties can be revealed and measured; and (iv) how the user community can develop coordinated defences against repeated denial of service attacks on the network. Such public analyses of this open data are exemplary benefits unavailable to the closed data models of the ‘private permissioned’ distributed ledger architectures currently dominating enterprise-level blockchain development owing to existing issues of scalability, confidentiality and governance. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T17:43:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-518e005614bc47d5b5afb3f050b92bc4 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2054-5703 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T17:43:49Z |
| publishDate | 2018-01-01 |
| publisher | The Royal Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Royal Society Open Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-518e005614bc47d5b5afb3f050b92bc42022-12-21T23:36:39ZengThe Royal SocietyRoyal Society Open Science2054-57032018-01-015810.1098/rsos.180298180298Towards open data blockchain analytics: a Bitcoin perspectiveD. McGinnD. McIlwraithY. GuoBitcoin is the first implementation of a technology that has become known as a ‘public permissionless’ blockchain. Such systems allow public read/write access to an append-only blockchain database without the need for any mediating central authority. Instead, they guarantee access, security and protocol conformity through an elegant combination of cryptographic assurances and game theoretic economic incentives. Not until the advent of the Bitcoin blockchain has such a trusted, transparent, comprehensive and granular dataset of digital economic behaviours been available for public network analysis. In this article, by translating the cumbersome binary data structure of the Bitcoin blockchain into a high fidelity graph model, we demonstrate through various analyses the often overlooked social and econometric benefits of employing such a novel open data architecture. Specifically, we show: (i) how repeated patterns of transaction behaviours can be revealed to link user activity across the blockchain; (ii) how newly mined bitcoin can be associated to demonstrate individual accumulations of wealth; (iii) through application of the naïve quantity theory of money that Bitcoin's disinflationary properties can be revealed and measured; and (iv) how the user community can develop coordinated defences against repeated denial of service attacks on the network. Such public analyses of this open data are exemplary benefits unavailable to the closed data models of the ‘private permissioned’ distributed ledger architectures currently dominating enterprise-level blockchain development owing to existing issues of scalability, confidentiality and governance.https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.180298bitcoinblockchainopen datagraph databasedata miningknowledge discovery |
| spellingShingle | D. McGinn D. McIlwraith Y. Guo Towards open data blockchain analytics: a Bitcoin perspective Royal Society Open Science bitcoin blockchain open data graph database data mining knowledge discovery |
| title | Towards open data blockchain analytics: a Bitcoin perspective |
| title_full | Towards open data blockchain analytics: a Bitcoin perspective |
| title_fullStr | Towards open data blockchain analytics: a Bitcoin perspective |
| title_full_unstemmed | Towards open data blockchain analytics: a Bitcoin perspective |
| title_short | Towards open data blockchain analytics: a Bitcoin perspective |
| title_sort | towards open data blockchain analytics a bitcoin perspective |
| topic | bitcoin blockchain open data graph database data mining knowledge discovery |
| url | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.180298 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dmcginn towardsopendatablockchainanalyticsabitcoinperspective AT dmcilwraith towardsopendatablockchainanalyticsabitcoinperspective AT yguo towardsopendatablockchainanalyticsabitcoinperspective |