blockpy a fast, extensible, in-memory, researcher-oriented Bitcoin blockchain analysis framework in Python 3

Abstract

We present blockpy, a novel, in-memory Bitcoin blockchain analysis framework. blockpy is a researcher-oriented software package that improves upon existing solutions in terms of both expressiveness and speed. Written primarily in Python 3, blockpy’s core innovation is shrinking the blockchain down to fit into the memory of a consumer-grade machine, while at the same time preserving enough useful information to allow for meaningful analysis of Bitcoin. blockpy is an open-source framework that has been written with extensibility in mind. In the current paper, the design and development behind blockpy is detailed, followed by an evaluation of the framework and its application to a few interesting problems, including an investigation into a little-discussed, but potentially damaging Bitcoin "quirk," and a characterization of the transaction fee policies of top miners.