Paper 2017/1095

Analysis of the Bitcoin UTXO set

Sergi Delgado-Segura, Cristina Pérez-Solà, Guillermo Navarro-Arribas, and Jordi Herrera-Joancomartí

Abstract

Bitcoin relies on the Unspent Transaction Outputs (UTXO) set to efficiently verify new generated transactions. Every unspent out- put, no matter its type, age, value or length is stored in every full node. In this paper we introduce a tool to study and analyze the UTXO set, along with a detailed description of the set format and functionality. Our analysis includes a general view of the set and quantifies the difference between the two existing formats up to the date. We also provide an ac- curate analysis of the volume of dust and unprofitable outputs included in the set, the distribution of the block height in which the outputs where included, and the use of non-standard outputs.

Metadata
Available format(s)
PDF
Category
Applications
Publication info
Preprint.
Keywords
BitcoinUTXO setanalysistool
Contact author(s)
sdelgado @ deic uab cat
History
2018-01-19: revised
2017-11-10: received
See all versions
Short URL
https://ia.cr/2017/1095
License
Creative Commons Attribution
CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2017/1095,
      author = {Sergi Delgado-Segura and Cristina Pérez-Solà and Guillermo Navarro-Arribas and Jordi Herrera-Joancomartí},
      title = {Analysis of the Bitcoin UTXO set},
      howpublished = {Cryptology ePrint Archive, Paper 2017/1095},
      year = {2017},
      note = {\url{https://eprint.iacr.org/2017/1095}},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2017/1095}
}
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