An Architectural Assessment of Bitcoin

Abstract

Bitcoin is an emerging crypto-currency, which is wrapped in mystery and controversy. The goal is to transform how we transfer payments. The current approach for sending money from one remote party to another is via bank deposit and transfer by check or bank transfer. PayPal and other services were developed to provide faster payments to verified individuals, but each layer in the transaction adds time, cost, and/or risk to the transaction. Users of this new digital currency proclaim the benefits of security, anonymity, and efficiency for making transactions. The functionality and structure of the Bitcoin Network is complex and often attacked for not being a suitable replacement for currency. An independent understanding can be developed of the composite Bitcoin Financial Systems of Systems architecture by considering the challenges any System of System would face. A functional analysis, employing the Systems Modeling Language (SysML), is performed on the Bitcoin System of Systems architecture to help gain an understanding of the structure and functionality, and how that relates to the key actors and use cases, for determining if the users’ expectations are aligned with the architecture.