<p>Let's group all the answers in this Wiki. Suggestions shall be provided in new answers, relevant (voted) ones will be included in this list, sorted by category and publication date.</p>

<h3>Distributed currency models</h3>

<ul>
<li>[2008] Chapter 2 of Flavio Garcia PhD thesis: “<a href="http://dare.ubn.kun.nl/dspace/handle/2066/40158" rel="nofollow">Formal and Computational Cryptography: Protocols, Hashes and Commitments</a>”.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Bitcoin studies</h3>

<ul>
<li>[2011, Jul] ArXiv paper by F. Reid, M. Harrigan: “<a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.4524" rel="nofollow">An Analysis of Anonymity in the Bitcoin System</a>”</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-01T17:06:34.940Z
I think Garcia's thesis was published in 2008; the author was born in 1978... which can be a bit misleading on the title page of the pdf.
Artem Kaznatcheev
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-01T17:16:15.603Z
Yes, this was looking rather strange :-) This is wiki, it means you are encouraged to fix mistakes by yourself. (Btw, that's also true for obvious mistakes in normal posts.)
Stéphane Gimenez
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-01T15:59:00.153Z
2011-09-01T19:04:48.830Z
2011-09-01T19:04:48.830Z
Stéphane Gimenez
<p>Yes, there are studies about decentralized digital currencies. Some of them use ideas very similar to what Bitcoin chose, for instance refer to chapter 2 of <a href="http://dare.ubn.kun.nl/dspace/handle/2066/40158">this thesis</a>. The following Google scholar serarches will give you more reading:</p>

<p><a href="http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=Decentralized+digital+currencies&amp;hl=en&amp;btnG=Search&amp;as_sdt=1%2C5&amp;as_sdtp=on">http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=Decentralized+digital+currencies&amp;hl=en&amp;btnG=Search&amp;as_sdt=1%2C5&amp;as_sdtp=on</a></p>

<p>and </p>

<p><a href="http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=related:hCw5g5lkHWcJ:scholar.google.com/&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=0,5">http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=related:hCw5g5lkHWcJ:scholar.google.com/&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=0,5</a></p>

<p>The basic premise of a decentralized mint is not a new idea, and has been studied for a while. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-01T14:50:34.943Z
2011-09-01T14:50:34.943Z
Artem Kaznatcheev
<p>Bitcoin is a relatively new phenomenon and the peer-review process takes a while, so there is not much out there yet.</p>

<p>The most notable is a network analysis of bitcoin transactions done around the alleged "allinvain" theft earlier this year.</p>

<p><a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.4524" rel="nofollow">http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.4524</a></p>

<p>Other than that, there are currently a few articles published in academic journals that focus on bitcoin (as well as pop-sci and pop-compsci articles in various places)</p>

<p>For example</p>

<p>Grinberg, Reuben, Bitcoin: An Innovative Alternative Digital Currency (April 21, 2011). Available at SSRN: <a href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=1817857" rel="nofollow">http://ssrn.com/abstract=1817857</a></p>

<p>The best answer may be to do this in the form of a community wiki where articles published in academic journals can be posted by subject, as if bitcoin survives it will obviously start to receive a lot of attention.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-01T16:11:47.347Z
Thanks for the first link. The second one is not technology related.
Stéphane Gimenez
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-01T14:47:50.907Z
2013-12-24T19:57:19.997Z
2013-12-24T19:57:19.997Z
lemonginger
<p>I think that <a href="http://bitcoinacademic.wordpress.com" rel="nofollow">http://bitcoinacademic.wordpress.com</a> could be able to help. There is a wide collection of academic research in many fields. However, you are right, there are not that many peer reviewed journal articles out there, but I do think some of this research is valuable and provides interesting insights. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-28T14:07:31.497Z
2015-11-28T14:07:31.497Z
Peter
<p>There are some papers on Bitcoin and related topics here:
 - <a href="http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Research" rel="nofollow">http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Research</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-01T22:57:16.513Z
2011-09-01T22:57:16.513Z
Stephen Gornick
<p>Christian Decker maintains a pretty extended list of academic studies about Bitcoin : <a href="https://cdecker.github.io/btcresearch/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://cdecker.github.io/btcresearch/</a>.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-27T11:23:03.990Z
2020-06-27T11:23:03.990Z
Antoine Poinsot
<p>Besides “<a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf">Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System</a>”, which is more like a brief description of the general framework, are there other ‘scientific or research grade’ studies about Bitcoin technology? Can similar <em>decentralized</em> crypto-currency models be found in the literature?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-28T03:21:53.740Z
The source references section of the white paper contains several research publications and papers that point (some directly, some indirectly) to the *need for* and *inevitable emergence* of Bitcoin. Since Bitcoin emerged from cypherpunk efforts to reclaim privacy and autonomy from the state, it is less coordinated academic effort, and more innovation out of social need. Much like *guerilla warfare* was rapidly born out of modern circumstance (overwhelming adversary) rather than a systematic formulation during years of institutionalized research effort.
venzen
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-01T14:38:21.367Z
related question: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/36/46
Artem Kaznatcheev
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-01T14:38:57.793Z
also, note that the paper you link has not been published or peer-reviewed and thus it is contentious if it counts as a scientific study.
Artem Kaznatcheev
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-01T15:00:46.530Z
@Artem: Yes, that's a good guide to roughly understand the mechanisms of Bitcoin. But nothing really convincing in there.
Stéphane Gimenez
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-01T16:04:34.833Z
Voting to close because there can't be an accepted complete answer to this question.
ripper234
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-01T17:28:56.550Z
@ripper: The problem is that some knowledge about existing works is needed if we are to allow science/technology-related questions here. My opinion is that these questions are obviously on-topic here, but maybe we should start some discussion on meta?
Stéphane Gimenez
<academic-research>
Are there scientific studies related to the Bitcoin technology?
Stéphane Gimenez
# Are there scientific studies related to the Bitcoin technology?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2011-09-01)

Besides “[Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System](http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf)”, which is more like a brief description of the general framework, are there other ‘scientific or research grade’ studies about Bitcoin technology? Can similar *decentralized* crypto-currency models be found in the literature?

**Tags:** academic-research

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: related question: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/36/46  
> **username_2**: also, note that the paper you link has not been published or peer-reviewed and thus it is contentious if it counts as a scientific study.  
> **username_0**: @username_2: Yes, that's a good guide to roughly understand the mechanisms of Bitcoin. But nothing really convincing in there.  
> **username_3**: Voting to close because there can't be an accepted complete answer to this question.  
> **username_0**: @ripper: The problem is that some knowledge about existing works is needed if we are to allow science/technology-related questions here. My opinion is that these questions are obviously on-topic here, but maybe we should start some discussion on meta?  
> **username_1**: The source references section of the white paper contains several research publications and papers that point (some directly, some indirectly) to the *need for* and *inevitable emergence* of Bitcoin. Since Bitcoin emerged from cypherpunk efforts to reclaim privacy and autonomy from the state, it is less coordinated academic effort, and more innovation out of social need. Much like *guerilla warfare* was rapidly born out of modern circumstance (overwhelming adversary) rather than a systematic formulation during years of institutionalized research effort.  

---

## 6 answers

### Answer by username_0 on 2011-09-01. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

Let's group all the answers in this Wiki. Suggestions shall be provided in new answers, relevant (voted) ones will be included in this list, sorted by category and publication date.

### Distributed currency models

* [2008] Chapter 2 of Flavio Garcia PhD thesis: “[Formal and Computational Cryptography: Protocols, Hashes and Commitments](http://dare.ubn.kun.nl/dspace/handle/2066/40158)”.

### Bitcoin studies

* [2011, Jul] ArXiv paper by F. Reid, M. Harrigan: “[An Analysis of Anonymity in the Bitcoin System](http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.4524)”

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: I think Garcia's thesis was published in 2008; the author was born in 1978... which can be a bit misleading on the title page of the pdf.  
> **username_0**: Yes, this was looking rather strange :-) This is wiki, it means you are encouraged to fix mistakes by yourself. (Btw, that's also true for obvious mistakes in normal posts.)  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2011-09-01. Score: 9

Bitcoin is a relatively new phenomenon and the peer-review process takes a while, so there is not much out there yet.

The most notable is a network analysis of bitcoin transactions done around the alleged "allinvain" theft earlier this year.

<http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.4524>

Other than that, there are currently a few articles published in academic journals that focus on bitcoin (as well as pop-sci and pop-compsci articles in various places)

For example

Grinberg, Reuben, Bitcoin: An Innovative Alternative Digital Currency (April 21, 2011). Available at SSRN: <http://ssrn.com/abstract=1817857>

The best answer may be to do this in the form of a community wiki where articles published in academic journals can be posted by subject, as if bitcoin survives it will obviously start to receive a lot of attention.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks for the first link. The second one is not technology related.  

---

### Answer by username_2 on 2011-09-01. Score: 5

Yes, there are studies about decentralized digital currencies. Some of them use ideas very similar to what Bitcoin chose, for instance refer to chapter 2 of [this thesis](http://dare.ubn.kun.nl/dspace/handle/2066/40158). The following Google scholar serarches will give you more reading:

<http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=Decentralized+digital+currencies&hl=en&btnG=Search&as_sdt=1%2C5&as_sdtp=on>

and

<http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=related:hCw5g5lkHWcJ:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5>

The basic premise of a decentralized mint is not a new idea, and has been studied for a while.


---

### Answer by username_5 on 2015-11-28. Score: 3

I think that <http://bitcoinacademic.wordpress.com> could be able to help. There is a wide collection of academic research in many fields. However, you are right, there are not that many peer reviewed journal articles out there, but I do think some of this research is valuable and provides interesting insights.


---

### Answer by username_6 on 2011-09-01. Score: 2

There are some papers on Bitcoin and related topics here:
- <http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Research>


---

### Answer by username_7 on 2020-06-27. Score: 0

Christian Decker maintains a pretty extended list of academic studies about Bitcoin : <https://cdecker.github.io/btcresearch/>.


---

