Forkmon: Monitoring the Networks Supporting Bitcoin Hard Forks

Abstract

In this article, we shed light on the peer-to-peer networks which support public blockchains stemming from Bitcoin forks. While the Bitcoin network has undergone a lot of attention, little has been discovered on the size, geographical spread, and general dependability of the networks supporting such forks. In this paper, we first discuss the various types of Bitcoin forks. We identify the case of hard forks which essentially consist in independent crypto-currencies that become completely separated from the reference Bitcoin network. We present a set of tools that are used to gather information on the Bitcoin forks networks. Finally, we provide preliminary analysis results regarding the size, IP layer localization, concentration, and overlap of ten Bitcoin forks.