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A Language-Agnostic Compression Framework for the Bitcoin Blockchain

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Advanced Information Networking and Applications (AINA 2024)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes on Data Engineering and Communications Technologies ((LNDECT,volume 200))

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Abstract

This research addresses the growing interdisciplinary interest in Bitcoin by proposing a versatile compression framework for transforming raw blockchain data into a streamlined compact format suitable for high-performance analysis. Our approach focuses on developing a language-agnostic API, ensuring accessibility across programming languages. Beyond data extraction, our framework outputs the Bitcoin user transaction graph, facilitating network analysis, forensics, and pattern detection. Processed data are exported to the HDF5 file format for compatibility with mainstream analysis tools. A proof-of-concept CPython implementation demonstrates the framework’s feasibility, showcasing its real-world applicability for data-driven investigations in Bitcoin research.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf.

  2. 2.

    https://blockchain.com/explorer/charts/n-transactions-total.

  3. 3.

    https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Common-input-ownership_heuristic.

  4. 4.

    https://github.com/aappleby/smhasher.

  5. 5.

    https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2012-December/123028.html.

  6. 6.

    https://courses.csail.mit.edu/6.006/spring11/rec/rec07.pdf.

  7. 7.

    https://blockchain.com/explorer/charts/n-transactions-per-block.

  8. 8.

    https://coinmetrics.io/batching/.

  9. 9.

    https://github.com/alecalve/python-bitcoin-blockchain-parser.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada

    Orestes Papanastassiou & Alex Thomo

Authors
  1. Orestes Papanastassiou
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  2. Alex Thomo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Orestes Papanastassiou .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information and Communication Engineering, Fukuoka Institute of Technology, Fukuoka, Japan

    Leonard Barolli

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Papanastassiou, O., Thomo, A. (2024). A Language-Agnostic Compression Framework for the Bitcoin Blockchain. In: Barolli, L. (eds) Advanced Information Networking and Applications. AINA 2024. Lecture Notes on Data Engineering and Communications Technologies, vol 200. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-57853-3_20

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