Bernhard Haslhofer (Austrian Institute of Technology) – O Bitcoin, Where Art Thou? Insight into Large-Scale Transaction Graphs

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are now well-known and attract considerable public attention and scrutiny. However, few attempts have been made to systematically and empirically investigate entire cryptocurrency ecosystems in the same way that their real-world counterparts have been studied by economists, sociologists, or researchers from other related disciplines. This talk will, first of all, introduce known quantitative methods for analyzing cryptocurrency ecosystems from a micro- and macroscopic perspective based on transaction data available in the publicly accessible blockchain and other contextually relevant data sources. Then it will explain how the GraphSense Cryptocurrency Analytics platform, which is being developed at AIT, can be used for inspecting and analyzing transactions, real-world actors and their relationships. Finally, it will also showcase a scientific investigation methodology that has been used to quantify the economic aspects of ransomware attacks and could serve as blueprint for finding answers to similar research questions. It will conclude by identifying possible interdisciplinary research questions and lay out an agenda for possible future research activities.

Friday, January 12, 2018, 11:00 am

Oesterreichische Nationalbank
Otto-Wagner-Platz 3, 1090 Wien

Please register until Tuesday, January 9, 2018