Communications of the ACM
Probing Bitcoins
A study documenting more than 16 million transactions involving Bitcoins found that most Bitcoin users either play games or engage in some form of currency speculation.
Credit: UCSD News (CA)
University of California, San Diego (UCSD) researchers, led by Ph.D. student Sarah Meiklejohn, recently conducted a study examining how Bitcoins have been used since their introduction in early 2009. The researchers documented more than 16 million transactions and more than 12 million public keys, which are the addresses Bitcoin users use for their transactions, through April 13, 2013.
"Once you do something with that currency, we can learn more and more about who you are and who you interact with," says UCSD research scientist Kirill Levchenko.
Most users either play games or engage in some form of currency speculation by moving Bitcoins from mining pools, where they are created, to exchanges where they can be converted to dollars, according to the researchers.
The researchers also were able to trace back a large number of public keys to specific clusters. UCSD's Marjori Pomarole created a visualization of the Bitcoin user network, including vendors, gambling services, mining pools that create the currency, fixed-rate exchanges that process transactions, wallets where the currency is stored, and investment schemes.
After analyzing the virtual network, the researchers conducted 344 transactions, purchasing everything from silver quarters, to coffee, to a calculator and a used CD.
From UCSD News (CA)
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