【Author】
Alqassem, Israa; Rahwan, Iyad; Svetinovic, Davor
【Source】IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SYSTEMS MAN CYBERNETICS-SYSTEMS
【Abstract】Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and a decentralized semi-anonymous peer-to-peer payment system in which the transactions are verified by network nodes and recorded in a public massively replicated ledger called the blockchain. Bitcoin is currently considered as one of the most disruptive technologies. Bitcoin represents a paradox of opposing forces. On one hand, it is fundamentally social, allowing people to transact in a peer-to-peer manner to create and exchange value. On the other hand, Bitcoin's core design philosophy and user base contain strong anti-social elements and constraints, emphasizing anonymity, privacy, and subversion of traditional centralized financial systems. We believe that the success of Bitcoin, and the financial ecosystem built around it, will likely rely on achieving an optimal balance between these social and anti-social forces. To elucidate the role of these forces, we analyze the evolution of the entire Bitcoin transaction graph from its inception, and quantify the evolution of its key structural properties. We observe that despite its different nature, the Bitcoin transaction graph exhibits many universal dynamics typical of social networks. However, we also find that Bitcoin deviates in important ways due to anonymity-seeking behavioral patterns of its users. As a result, the network exhibits a two-orders-of-magnitude larger diameter, sparse tree-like communities, and an overwhelming majority of transitional or intermediate accounts with incoming and outgoing edges but zero cumulative balances. These results illuminate the evolutionary dynamics of the most popular cryptocurrency, and provide us with initial understanding of social networks rooted in and driven by anti-social constraints.
【Keywords】Bitcoin; Public key; Social network services; Peer-to-peer computing; Privacy; Data analysis; Bitcoin; cryptocurrency; social networks
【摘要】比特币是一种加密货币，也是一种去中心化的半匿名点对点支付系统，其中的交易由网络节点进行验证，并记录在名为区块链的公共大规模复制账本中。比特币目前被认为是最具颠覆性的技术之一。比特币代表了一种对立力量的悖论。一方面，它具有基本的社会性，允许人们以点对点的方式进行交易，以创造和交换价值。另一方面，比特币的核心设计理念和用户基础包含强烈的反社会元素和约束，强调匿名性、隐私性，颠覆传统的中心化金融体系。我们相信，比特币的成功，以及围绕它建立的金融生态系统，很可能依赖于在这些社会力量和反社会力量之间实现最佳平衡。为了阐明这些力量的作用，我们从一开始就分析了整个比特币交易图的演变，并量化了其关键结构属性的演变。我们观察到，尽管其性质不同，比特币交易图显示了社交网络的许多典型的普遍动态。然而，我们也发现，由于用户的匿名寻求行为模式，比特币在一些重要的方面出现了偏离。其结果是，该网络的直径大了两个数量级，稀疏的树状社区，以及绝大多数的过渡性或中间账户具有传入和输出边缘，但累计余额为零。这些结果阐明了最流行的加密货币的进化动力学，并为我们提供了对植根于和受反社会约束驱动的社交网络的初步理解。
【关键词】比特币;公钥;社交网络服务;点对点计算;隐私;数据分析;比特币;加密数字货币;社交网络
评论