Bitcoin P2P Network Measurements: A testbed study of the effect of peer selection on transaction propagation and confirmation times

Bitcoin is the first and the most extensive decentralized electronic cryptocurrency system that uses blockchain technology. It uses a peer-to-peer (P2P) network to operate without a central authority and propagate system information such as transactions or blockchain updates. The communication between participating nodes is highly relying on the underlying network infrastructure to facilitate a platform. Understanding the impact of peer formation strategies, peer list, and delay are vital on understanding node to node communication. To this aim, we performed an extensive study on the transaction characteristic of Bitcoin through a Testbed. The analysis shows that peer selection strategies affect the transactions propagation and confirmation time. Moreover, the default distance-based peer selection strategy in Bitcoin performs less when there is high arrival intensity and creates high number forks.