Analyzing the Deployment of Bitcoin's P2P Network under an AS-level Perspective

Bitcoin has become increasingly important in recent years. The exchange rate raised from 14 in January 2013 up to 240 in April 2013 and even 900 in early 2014. In this paper, we present novel insights about Bitcoin's peer-to-peer (P2P) network with a special focus on its distribution among distinct autonomous systems. We traversed Bitcoin's P2P network in a protocol-compliant manner and collected information about the network size, the number of clients, and the network distribution among autonomous systems. Our findings lead to conclusions about the resilience of the Bitcoin ecosystem, the unambiguousness of the blockchain in use, and the propagation and verification of transaction blocks.