Modeling of Churn Process in Bitcoin Network

Abstract

In this work, we present an analytical model for the churning process in Bitcoin network. We model the churning process for ordinary (non-gateway) nodes with homogeneous sleep time using Continuous Time Markov Chain. Within performance results, we present mean synchronization time needed when nodes come back from sleep and block distribution time in presence of churning nodes. Our results indicate that sleep times of the order of several hours require synchronization times in the order of a minute. Also, a large number of churning nodes can significantly affect the distribution power of the Bitcoin network.