Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2501.11416

Mapping network structures and dynamics of decentralised cryptocurrencies: The evolution of Bitcoin (2009-2023)

Marco Venturini·Daniel García-Costa·Elena Álvarez-García·Francisco Grimaldo·Flaminio Squazzoni
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Cryptocurrencies have recently been in the spotlight of public debate due to their embrace by the new US President, with crypto fans expecting a 'bull run'. The global cryptocurrency market capitalisation is more than \$3.50 trillion, with 1 Bitcoin exchanging for more than \$97,000 at the end of November 2024. Monitoring the evolution of these systems is key to understanding whether the popular perception of cryptocurrencies as a new, sustainable economic infrastructure is well-founded. In this paper, we have reconstructed the network structures and dynamics of Bitcoin from its launch in January 2009 to December 2023 and identified its key evolutionary phases. Our results show that network centralisation and wealth concentration increased from the very early years, following a richer-get-richer mechanism. This trend was endogenous to the system, beyond any subsequent institutional or exogenous influence. The evolution of Bitcoin is characterised by three periods, Exploration, Adaptation and Maturity, with substantial coherent network patterns. Our findings suggest that Bitcoin is a highly centralised structure, with high levels of wealth inequality and internally crystallised power dynamics, which may have negative implications for its long-term sustainability.

Explore related subjects

cs.CE

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Marco Venturini, Daniel García-Costa, Elena Álvarez-García, Francisco Grimaldo, Flaminio Squazzoni. 2025-01-20. Mapping network structures and dynamics of decentralised cryptocurrencies: The evolution of Bitcoin (2009-2023). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0329617

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Cosm: Collective switched motion for sparse Ising optimization

We introduce Collective Switched Motion (Cosm), a heuristic optimization framework based on switched collective dynamics. Cosm compiles the objective into subobjectives that are activated sequentially, temporally separating competing local influences. The interplay of switching and local interactions among variables gives rise to collective search behavior, while a new correlated perturbation mechanism encourages coordinated cluster motion. Tests on tuned-hardness spin-glass benchmarks suggest more favorable algorithmic scaling than that reported for leading dynamical solvers. Cosm heuristically attains the certified optima of three of the largest Gset instances (G72, G77, G81), exceeding the previously reported heuristic solutions. On the large random-graph instances G61 and G70, a CPU implementation reliably attains the best-known solutions, reaching cuts of 5799 and 9595 with 99%-confidence times-to-target of 15 s and 2.4 s, respectively. On the heterogeneous-degree G64 instance, Cosm establishes a new best-known cut of 8753. Broadly, the results suggest an alternative approach to heuristic design in which local dynamics and orchestration mechanisms are carefully designed so that effective search emerges.

cs.CE↗
arXiv2026

Decomposing Firm-Level Crisis Responses from Incomplete Market Signals: Evidence from China's IT Sector During COVID-19

Exogenous shocks generate heterogeneous behavioral responses across firms, yet event studies typically report only sector-level averages. This paper develops a multi-method approach combining causal identification (difference-in-differences with cluster-robust inference), unsupervised behavioral discovery (K-means trajectory clustering, Gaussian hidden Markov models), and cross-sectional resilience prediction (logistic regression with nested cross-validation) to decompose firm-level response heterogeneity from noisy market signals. We demonstrate the approach on 246 Chinese A-share IT firms (216 with complete data for all analyses) during the COVID-19 shock (January 2020), using 252 non-IT CSI 300 firms as controls. The return decline was market-wide, not IT-specific (DID p = 0.59); the IT-specific effect was elevated volatility (DID beta = 0.043, cluster-robust p < 0.001), with the effect surviving Benjamini-Hochberg correction in 13 of 30 alternative specifications. Unsupervised clustering produced three trajectory groups: fast recovery (36 companies, +29.7%), resilient/moderate (67 companies), and persistent drag (113 companies, -6.9%). Pre-crisis financial fundamentals showed only modest predictive power for resilience (nested CV AUC = 0.635, 95% CI: 0.558-0.711; permutation p = 0.016), consistent with the limited informativeness of publicly available signals for anticipating crisis outcomes. The combination of causal analysis, unsupervised learning, and prediction represents a reproducible framework which can be applied to crises in other market periods.

cs.CE↗
arXiv2026

An Insurance Broker for Every Small Business: The Economics of Exceptional Care at Scale

Small-business owners need expert guidance on their own terms, across schedules, languages, and channels, but low premiums make exceptional, continuous human service uneconomic for much of the market. Combining public evidence, Kinro operational data, and an illustrative five-year service model, we show why traditional brokerage economics leave 35 million U.S. small businesses underserved. An AI-native brokerage can change those economics by performing and coordinating routine work continuously, while licensed professionals govern consequential exceptions and the brokerage remains accountable.

cs.CE↗