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Dashboard Of Cryptocurrency: A Systematic Review
Natkamon Tovanich, Nicolas Heulot, Jean-Daniel Fekete, Petra Isenberg
Dashboard Of Cryptocurrency:A
Systematic Review
Natkamon Tovanich, Nicolas Heulot, Jean-Daniel Fekete, and Petra Isenberg
Abstract—We present a systematic review of visual analytics tools used for the analysis of blockchains-related data. The blockchain
concept has recently received considerable attention and spurred applications in a variety of domains. We systematically and
quantitatively assessed 76 analytics tools that have been proposed in research as well as online by professionals and blockchain
enthusiasts. Our classification of these tools distinguishes (1) target blockchains, (2) blockchain data, (3) target audiences, (4) task
domains, and (5) visualization types. Furthermore, we look at which aspects of blockchain data have already been explored and point out
areas that deserve more investigation in the future.
Index Terms—Blockchain, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Information Visualization, Visual Analytics, State-of-the-Art Survey.
1 INTRODUCTION
which is used to pay for machines executing the code. As addresses. All the value of input addresses is sent to the
of November, 2019, there are more than 590 million output addresses, so the input addresses end-up empty at
transactions amounted to over 200 GB data size in the the end of the transaction, except that the transaction can
Ethereum ledger [O21]. It has been increasingly adopted send change back to the owner, on any of his or her addresses.
by companies that formed the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance If the amount transferred is less than the total amount held
(EEA) in February 2017. Among the founding members were by the input addresses, the change is left as a transaction fee
big companies such as, Microsoft, JP Morgan, Accenture, and for the miner who will validate the block.
Intel [15]. Because the blockchain is a decentralized system, a
concensus protocol is needed to decide which transaction is
valid and should be added to the ledger. Many blockchain-
2.1 How does the Bitcoin blockchain work? based systems, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, adopt Proof-of-
Since the Bitcoin blockchain is currently the most well-known Work (PoW) protocols. Miners are in charge of maintaining the
(popular) and widely-used (active) blockchain in the public blockchain ledger and propose a new block to the network.
domain, we will start by explaining the mechanism behind Since this operation is expensive, they need a reward. The
the Bitcoin system as many of its concepts also similarly miner who successfully proposed a new block can reclaim
apply to other types of blockchains. In this section, we a coinbase transaction: it includes newly generated value and
provide a simplified description for general audiences and transaction fees from every transaction in a block. Yet, the
refer to the book “Mastering Bitcoin: Programming the Open validation is performed as a competition: multiple miners
Blockchain” [2] for more technical detail about the Bitcoin perform the computations to validate the block which is, in
blockchain. short, trying to find a number that gives a hash with a specific
The blockchain is a public ledger that records a list of form. The first miner who solves the puzzle can propose a
transactions in the distributed network. For Bitcoin, most new block to the network and claim the reward if the majority
of these transactions are of cryptocurrency value transfers, of miners agree to include it in their ledgers. Therefore,
but more complex transactions are possible (e.g., simple miners get their reward but not regularly in proportion to
smart contracts, multi-signatures, etc.). Just like regular their computational power. The difficulty of mining is
transactions, blockchain transactions need to be validated: decided by the total computation power in the blockchain
the sending and receiving addresses need to be valid, the network (so-called hash rate) which often adapts to reach the
sending account needs to contain enough value to be desired rate of adding a new block every 10 minutes. The
transferred (technically called, unspent transaction outputs mining process ensures that the data in the Bitcoin blockchain
(UTXOs)) and senders need to have the right to spend the is consistent and prevents attacks from malicious users.
value. In traditional banks, these validations are performed Like in Bitcoin, other blockchains share the general idea
of a growing, verifiable but immutable list of records stored
by the bank itself which has to be trusted to avoid double
in blocks that are linked to one another. Cryptographic
spending or stealing.
measures are used to encode links between blocks. In contrast
With blockchain technology, the ledger is public and
to the bitcoin blockchain, however, other blockchains may
distributed. The validation is performed through a consensus
implement a different protocol to store transactions and
reached by a pool of people called miners. Anyone can decide
regulate the consensus in their decentralized networks.
to become a miner; it only requires very powerful machines
Examples of alternative consensus protocols are Proof-of-stake
and a good network connection. The validation is done by
(PoS), Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT), Ripple and
block, so when transactions are issued, they are buffered
Tendermint. We refer readers to Zheng et al.’s survey [50] that
and pending in the mempool (i.e. transactions waiting to be
describes different blockchain protocols in greater detail.
confirmed/included in a new block). Those transactions are
collected and verified by the miners. Some transactions can 2.2 Elements of blockchain data
be rejected, and for the valid ones, they are included in
a new block. Then, the new block is added to a chain of Here, we generalize blockchain data elements and illustrate
blocks (the updated ledger) that cannot be changed, hence those data elements by giving concrete examples in Bitcoin.
the term blockchain. The blocks are considered valid if they We will refer to these generalized types of blockchain data in
are accepted by the majority of nodes. our classification scheme.
A transaction is the most granular level of blockchain
The validation miners perform involves running com-
putationally expensive methods to verify the validity of the data. It records a transfer of value between addresses. In
transaction parties and amounts transferred. These Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, a transaction record
methods are based on public-key cryptography. There are contains pseudonymous input and output address(es) with
also technical differences between a traditional transaction the value to transfer or received associated with each address.
Transaction records are stored in a data structure called
and blockchain transactions. In the Bitcoin blockchain, the
a block. Blocks hold and group a certain number of trans-
transactions are done from addresses and not from accounts.
actions. Multiple blocks are connected in a linked list called
An address can be created at any time for free, and is
a ledger. Nodes are electronic devices that maintain and
represented as a long string with cryptographic properties
to be able to validate its owner. The owner of the address distribute a copy of the ledger in the blockchain network so
cannot be inferred from the address itself so transactions are that the data remains synchronized. Miners are special nodes
almost anonymous, though they can be tracked, hence they in the peer-to-peer network that participate in verifying
are referred to as pseudonymous. One transaction can involve transactions and adding new blocks to the ledger, with the
possibility to receive a reward.
several input addresses and send value to multiple output
IEEE TVCG SURVEY PAPER - REVISED VERSION 3
An entity represents a real blockchain user or organiza- prior work on the state-of-the-art in blockchain research that
we reviewed to inform our own classification scheme of
tion behind a transaction. When input and output addresses
are pseudonymous, entities cannot be directly inferred from blockchain VA tools.
the blockchain. In addition, an address is meant to be used Reviews on blockchain technology: Most of the existing
only once as a conventional practice in the cryptocurrency
literature reviews on blockchain research focus on a technical
blockchain community for privacy and security purposes.
perspective. For example, Zheng et al. [50] presented a com-
Yet, we can trace the activities of addresses on the
prehensive review of the current advancement of blockchain
blockchain without knowing the real-world identity of
technology. The authors describe common blockchain charac-
entities behind transactions. Research has shown that sim-
teristics: decentralization, persistency, anonymity, and auditabil-
ple heuristics can be used to group pseudonymous input
ity; and then compare the differences among consensus
addresses into entities [1] [A13] [A15] [A16]. By simply group-
algorithms. The article also lists real-world applications that
ing addresses, entities remain pseudonymous. Yet, external
can benefit from blockchain architectures. Bonneau et al.
data sources exist that provide a list of addresses that belong to
[8] provide an analysis of algorithms and protocols used
well-known entities such as WalletExplorer.com [22],
specifically in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. The article
Bitcoin Forum [32], and Blockchain.info [O10].
highlights stability and security limitations in the current
cryptocurrency blockchains and proposes future challenges.
2.3 Types of blockchain
Yli-Huumo et al. [49] collected 48 research articles on
Blockchains can be categorized into three types: pub-lic blockchain technology which the authors summarized into
blockchains, consortium blockchains, and private 7 categories based on technical challenges and limitations. One
blockchains [10] [50]. of the technical challenges discussed in the article is usability
• Public blockchains are open blockchains in which any from a user’s perspective. The authors emphasized thenecessity
participant can read, write, and submit transactionsto of analytical tools to improve the ability of users to analyze and
the ledger. Any participant can join the consensus process detect patterns in the blockchain network. None of these past
to determine whether to add blocks and trans- actions to reviews refer to visualization, which is the focus of our review.
the ledger. Public blockchains are suitable for applications Reviews on blockchain analytics: Balaskas and Fran- queira
that are open for everyone and need fully decentralized [3] examined analytic tools for the Bitcoin blockchain that are
systems. Bitcoin is a well-known example of a public available on the internet and proposed a taxonomy based on
blockchain. analysis themes: analysis of entity relationships, metadata,
• Consortium blockchains are semi-private blockchains money flows, user behavior, transaction fee, and market / wallets.
that restrict the consensus process to the selected group of The found tools are mainly able to track and monitor
participants that are trusted by the system. This re- cryptocurrency values, and therefore are useful for detecting
duces the time to verify transactions and blocks but also fraudulent transactions. Another article by Bartoletti et al. [4]
makes the systems partially centralized to selected nodes. surveyed Bitcoin and cryptocurrency analysis tools found in
Permission to operate a node on a consortium blockchain academic articles and websites. The tools in their survey were
is granted by the overseeing group of organizations. classified based on analysis goals: anonymity, market analytics,
• Private blockchains are fully controlled by an organi- cyber-crime, metadata and transaction fees. For each analysis
zation that determines the consensus of the blockchain goal, the authors further specified the kind of blockchain-
ledger. The private blockchain owner has an authority related data used in the tools, such as transaction graphs,
to allow or restrict the read permission to participants. address tags, IP addresses, mining pools, exchange rates, and lists of
Private blockchains are centralized systems, similar to DDoS attacks; and listed all sources that they retrieved. Based
database systems, and usually suitable for applications on the survey, the authors developed a general frameworkfor
which require high trust and privacy. blockchain analytics and showed use cases of analyzing
Some of the criteria described at the beginning of Sect. 2 transaction fees and Bitcoin metadata. Both articles collected
differ for consortium and private blockchains, where, for tools dedicated only to the Bitcoin blockchain and classified
example, consensus is determined by selected nodes that can them based on analytics tasks rather than visualization of
be trusted, and therefore past records could theoretically be blockchain data; which is the goal of our present work.
tampered with. In the remainder of the article, we focus on Reviews on blockchain visualization: We found only one
public blockchains as our systematic review did not uncover literature review on blockchain visualization. Sundara et al.
analyses or tools dedicated to private or consor- tium [41] reviewed 8 Bitcoin tools available on the internet and
blockchains. In this article, we also do not consider solutions provided a short description on visual representations and
like sidechains that allow interoperability between blockchains implementations. Most tools in their survey performed real-
or that speed up transaction validation (e.g., Lightning time monitoring for Bitcoin transactions. Nonetheless, the
Network) because they introduce specificities that we consider authors neither performed an exhaustive search nor proposed
out of the general scope of our survey. a method to classify the tools they found. In our previous work,
we collected 46 online Bitcoin visualization tools using a
3 RELATED WORK systematic review approach and classified them based on
A large number of research disciplines are interested in the analysis tasks and visual representations [46]. In this article, we
blockchain, including algorithms, software formal verifica- extend our data collection to include other kinds of blockchains
tion, database systems, computer security, system architec- (e.g., Ethereum) from research articles and online
ture, data security, and economics. Here, we summarize
IEEE TVCG SURVEY PAPER - REVISED VERSION 4
sources, and provide a more complete classification scheme web page had to contain interactive graphics showing raw or
that additionally considers blockchain data visualized, target aggregated data that is stored on a blockchain. We excluded
audiences, and task domains. web pages that showed only market data on cryptocurrency
exchanges (e.g., the current $ value of a Bitcoin).
Fig. 1. The diagram shows the classification scheme of visualizations on blockchain data we developed after several rounds of assessing and
characterizing sources we collected.
We did not find visualization tools on consortium and online news, socio-economic data (e.g., percentage of internet
private blockchains, such as Hyperledger [45] and Dragon- users, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, or the
chain [14], likely because those kinds of blockchains are human development index (HDI)), social media information,
developed inside private organizations and data is not or Google Trends data. The most common external data
publicly available to analyze and visualize. However, many source was data on cryptocurrency exchanges, in particular,
of the visualization techniques we surveyed can apply with to describe conversion rates of a cryptocurrency value to a
modification to private and consortium blockchains as the government-backed currency, such as the exchange rate of
underlying technological concepts are often similar. Bitcoin to US Dollar.
Blockchain Activities
Network External demand to the tool:
Entities Nodes Mining
Components Data Number of sources for different target audiences
online source for expert users that allowed to track Bitcoin Cybercrime Detection: Cybercrime is a serious threat to
value movement. the use of blockchains. This task domain is particularly
Of the sources we found 21% targeted novice audiences— common for the cryptocurrency community because of the
all were online sources aimed at casually informing curious historic frequency of fraudulent activities (e.g., money
visitors about the Bitcoin blockchain. laundering and illegal trading) as well as cyberattacks (e.g.,
denial-of-service and Sybil attacks) on most cryptocurrency
blockchains.
5.4 Task Domains
We found a total of 12 sources that discussed work related
We categorized our blockchain visualization tools and data to fraudulent activities in the network—4 analysis articles
analysis articles into six focus task domains: (1) transac- focused on specific fraudulent events, such as laundry services,
tion detail analysis, (2) transaction network analysis, (3) online drug market places, denial-of-service attacks, and
cybercrime detection, (4) cryptocurrency exchange analysis, anonymity of users. Besides these, there were 7 visu- alization
(5) peer-to-peer (P2P) network activity analysis, and (6) articles that proposed fraud detection tools while only 1 online
casual/entertaining information communication. These task source allowed experts to investigate criminal activities in
domains are not mutually exclusive but helped us to detect blockchains. All of the existing cybercrime detection tools
goals for the development, analysis, and exposure of existing were designed to investigate cybercrime
tools.
TABLE 1
Classification table of blockchain data visualization sources
Casual Visualizations
External Data Source
MD Visualizations
Cryptoc. Exchange Analysis
Map-based Visualizations
Blockchain Components
Intermediates
Cybercrime Detection
Casual / Entertaining
Time Series
Ethereum
Novices
Entities
Others
Bitcoin
Charts
Nodes
Mining
Experts
Visualization Articles
[V1] Tendrils of Crime x x x x x x
[V2] BlockChainVis x x x x x x
[V3] Bogner x x x x x x x
[V4] Chawathe x x x x x
[V5] BitConeView x x x x x x
[V6] Bitcoin Entity Explorer x x x x x x
[V7] BitConduite x x x x x x x x
[V8] Blockchain Explorer x x x x x x x x
[V9] McGinn et al. 2016 x x x x x x x
[V10] Norvill et al. x x x x x
[V11] BiVA x x x x x x
[V12] Schretlen et al. x x x x x
[V13] BitVis x x x x x x x x
[V14] BitExTract x x x x x x x x x x
Total 12 2 0 13 5 0 1 1 1 0 2 12 7 7 7 0 1 0 2 7 10 3 0 0
Data Analysis Articles
[A1] Alqassem et al. x x x x x x x
[A2] Aw et al. x x x x x x x
[A3] Badev and Chen x x x x x x x x
[A4] de Balthasar et al. x x x x x x x
[A5] Bartoletti and Pompianu x x x x x x
[A6] Bistarelli et al. x x x x x
[A7] Chang and Svetinovic x x x x x x
[A8] Chen et al. x x x x x x
[A9] Di Battista et al. x x x x x x
[A10] Lischke and Fabian x x x x x x x x x x x x x
[A11] Maesa et al. x x x x x x
[A12] McGin et al. 2018 x x x x x x x
[A13] Meiklejohn et al. x x x x x x x x
[A14] Norbutas x x x x x x x
[A15] Parino et al. x x x x x x x x x
[A16] Reid and Harrigan x x x x x x x x
[A17] Ron and Shamir x x x x x x
Total 14 1 2 11 8 2 0 4 4 0 0 17 0 12 4 1 5 0 12 13 10 0 2 0
Online Sources
[O1] EthStats.io x x x x x x x x
[O2] Alethio x x x x x x
[O3] BitBonkers x x x x x
[O4] Bitcoin Globe x x x x x
[O5] BitcoinWisdom x x x x x x x x x
[O6] Etherchain x x x x x x x x x x
[O7] chainFlyer x x x x x x
[O8] BitForce5 x x x x x
[O9] BitInfoCharts x x x x x x x x x x x
[O10] Blockchain.info x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
[O11] Blockchair x x x x x x x x x x x
[O12] BlockSeer x x x x x
[O13] BTC.com x x x x x x x x x x x x x
[O14] Bitcoinity x x x x x x x x x
[O15] Coin Dance x x x x x x x x x
[O16] CoinDesk x x x x x x x x x
[O17] DailyBlockchain x x x x x
[O18] DashRadar x x x x x x x x x x x
[O19] The Bitcoin Big Bang x x x x x
[O20] ethernodes.org x x x x x x x x x
[O21] Etherscan x x x x x x x x x x x x x
[O22] EtherView x x x x x
[O23] Ethviewer x x x x x x
[O24] Ethplorer x x x x x x x
[O25] Plantoids x x x x x
[O26] Gastracker.io x x x x x x x x x
[O27] Interaqt x x x x x
[O28] Federal Bitcoin x x x x x
[O29] Johoe’s Mempool x x x x x x
[O30] Symphony of Blockchains x x x x x
[O31] OXT x x x x x x x x x x
[O32] Bitcoin Visuals x x x x x x x x x
[O33] BitListen x x x x x
[O34] BitcoinCity x x x x x
[O35] EthStats.net x x x x x x x x
[O36] Blockchain 3D Explorer x x x x x
[O37] Statoshi.info x x x x x x
[O38] On Brink x x x x x
[O39] TradeBlock x x x x x x x x x x x x
[O40] TX Highway x x x x x
[O41] Bitcoin Monitor x x x x x
[O42] Bitcoinrain x x x x x x
[O43] Bitcoin VR x x x x x
[O44] Wizbit x x x x x x
[O45] BitNodes x x x x x x
Total 34 16 8 32 3 9 14 22 13 16 28 1 17 5 1 9 21 12 17 20 9 2 8 12
Grand Total 60 19 10 56 16 11 15 27 18 16 30 30 24 24 12 10 27 12 31 40 29 5 10 12
IEEE TVCG SURVEY PAPER - REVISED VERSION 9
Fig. 6. BitConduite [V7] is a tool to analyze entity groups for the Bitcoin
blockchain. (A) The filter view provides a time series and multiple
histograms to filter Bitcoin entities. (B) The tree view is a classification
tree used to show the result of applied filters. (C) After that, entities are
clustered into groups. Averages of each metric visualized as star glyphs.
(D) Entities in a selected group are presented as glyphs encoding their
attributes. (E) Data analysis experts can select an entity and explore its
activity timeline. Fig. 8. BlockchainVis [V2] allows for creating transaction networks and
analyzing the connectivity of transaction exchanges in Bitcoin. The tool
provides a filter panel that allows analysts to filter out unimportant nodes
from the graph based on block height, transaction value, and address
where the nodes evolve over time. Users can zoom into and balance.
hover over nodes to see additional information. However, the
transaction network is growing over time which decreases
the performance of the graph rendering. Bitforce5 [O8], in is an exception in that it presents a transaction activity
contrast, only shows a limited number of the most recent timeline of a chosen entity with a timeline-based squarified
transactions. Therefore the performance remains the same graph layout connecting input and output addresses over
over time. time (Fig. 9).
Several visualization articles proposed tools to explore A network of entities shows the connectivity between
transaction networks based on specific events: [V2], [V6], entities in the blockchain network: [V14], [A15], [O19]. Nodes
[V9], [O36]. The BlockchainVis [V2] tool displays a fully represent entities and edges represent connectivity through
connected transaction network of a transaction or an address transactions. For example in Bitcoin, an edge represents the
entered by the user (Fig. 8). McGinn et al. [V9] proposed a total amount of exchanged values between two entities and
system to display a transaction network on a large screen on is absent if no value was exchanged.
which users can pan, zoom, and hover over to get a better The Bitcoin Big Bang [O19] is an online visualization
overview or more detail. Blockchain 3D Explorer [O36] is the presenting a network of entities as a node-link diagram con-
only tool in this domain that visualizes a transaction network necting well-known wallets and highlighting the transaction
as a 3D graph. It also supports virtual reality systems for volume between them. The color of nodes represents the type
Google Cardboard to explore the blockchain network in an of nodes, such as payment processors, dark marketplaces,
immersive way. Instead of showing a static transaction and gambling services. It adds a temporal dimension to the
network as a node-link diagram, Bitcoin Entity Explorer [V6] node-link diagram by arranging the node distance from
IEEE TVCG SURVEY PAPER - REVISED VERSION 12
Fig. 13. The Bitcoin visualization in BitInfoCharts [O9] shows the trans-
action exchanges network between blocks for the entire Bitcoin network.
The graph uses a linear graph layout to display the evolution of block
height on the x-axis. The edges encode the total value of transaction Fig. 14. McGinn et al. [V9] displayed transaction networks during
outputs in a block that has been spent in the next blocks. Additional transaction rate attack incidents in the Bitcoin network at block heights
line and bar charts are added to show descriptive information on the 364133 (left) and 364618 (right). (CC BY 4.0)
blockchain including price, hash rate, and the number of transactions.
Fig. 17. Blockchain.info [O10] provides time series charts to show Fig. 19. BitNodes [O45] shows the geographical distribution of the number
aggregated statistics of the Bitcoin network. This example shows the of active Bitcoin nodes in a point map. The number of nodes in each
hash rate of Bitcoin over time. The number of nodes in each clustered clustered location is encoded as the bubble size.
location is encoded as the bubble size.
are discussed in Sect. 5.5. 7.2 Blockchain Analysis vs. Visual Analytics
In our survey, we covered visualizations published as part of
blockchain analysis articles—for which conveying theresult
6.6 Casual/Entertaining Information Communication of the analysis and not the design of visualizations were the
focus. As such, visualizations in the analysis articles were
Sources in this task domain generally provided original and meant for communication of scientific results rather than
experimental visualization of blockchain components that exploration. Most analysis articles focused on transaction
are distinct from any of the ones used for the above task network analysis—indicating a current research focus for
domains. Our sources encoded, for example, attributes of which, according to our survey, few tools exist that
transactions and blocks as custom objects—often in 3D—with experts could make use of. As a result, most analysis articles
animation and real-time updates. only showed time series plots or basic charts of network
To show the wide variety of visual encodings in this measures. In addition, we observed that blockchain analysis
category we briefly discuss a few examples: BitBonkers [O3] articles often did not conduct an in-depth analysis of the
shows live Bitcoin transactions as 3D balls falling on a plate entire blockchain, probably because of the large size of the
each time a new transaction is broadcasted to the network. blockchain and the lack of simple ways to explore and
BitcoinCity [O34] represents Bitcoin transactions as 3D toy statistically analyze the data in its entirety. Blockchain
models of buildings along the road that are moving as new analysis articles often focused on a higher-level data analysis
transactions are created. BitListen [O33] presents of the blockchain network (i.e. the global blockchain network
transactions as animated bubbles floating on the screen, or longitudinal study of P2P network analysis). Considering
producing notes that combine into improvised music. the demand of data analysis experts and decision-makers
Symphony of Blockchains [O30] includes a combination of to better understand blockchain activities, it would be an
interactive visual representation of Bitcoin data that allows opportunity for the VA community to come forward with
web visitors to browse blocks as a 3D visual representation more advanced tools that support both higher-level and
and navigate through a flight-simulator mode, along with more in-depth analyses of blockchain data. The growing size
background audio representing the network hash rate and and dynamic nature of blockchains require techniques that
using a unique tone for each of the transactions in the block. work on multiple levels of data aggregation and show data
Bitcoin VR [O43] is an open-source project that visualizes updates well. Tools also need to provide complete overviews of
Bitcoin transactions as balloons flying over a 360-degree the network and also allow experts to interactively drill-
view. down and see close details of transactions or individual
actors on the network. In particular, tools that allow experts
to take on specific viewpoints such as individual entities
in the network (e.g., people, enterprises, miners), historic
7 D ISC U SSION S AND OPEN C H AL L E N GE S
events (e.g., cyber-attacks), or network-related events (e.g.,
This section reports general observations that we gathered halving days or forks) are still missing. Finally, there is a lack
while compiling this survey about blockchain data visualiza- of tools tailored to the specific needs of particular experts, in
tion. In particular, we discuss the state-of-the-art of existing particular economists and blockchain managers. Economists
visualization practice in regards to blockchains as well as want to understand the activities on the blockchains and
opportunities for future research. compare them with related economic activities in the real
world. Consortium blockchain managers need to understand
e.g., how their blockchain evolves, according to their plans
7.1 Blockchain Visualization: Research vs. Practice and how it compares to other blockchains.
Blockchain enthusiasts and startups have quickly established 7.3 The Dominance of Cryptocurrency Blockchains
the need to better communicate what happens in and
around blockchains. In our survey, online sources that use Cryptocurrencies are the most widely used applications of
blockchains nowadays. All visualization sources we found
visualizations outnumber by far dedicated visualization
addressed cryptocurrency blockchains. Most sources
articles that describe how to visualize blockchain data for
visualized Bitcoin data since it is well-known, adopted, and
various types of tasks. Yet, most online sources only use and
has a high number of users. The second most frequently
require simple charts or time series visualizations, where
research input might not necessarily be required. Where visualized blockchain is Ethereum. All Ethereum-related
visualizations focus on the cryptocurrency aspect of value
research can contribute the most is by offering systems for
in-depth analysis and this is, indeed, what most current exchanges among entities, not the smart contract function-
ality that makes Ethereum different from Bitcoin. We did not
visualization articles focus on. Yet, we also see opportunities
find any source dedicated to other blockchain types,
for research to offer more fluid interaction and exploration
including consortium and private blockchains. Even though
capabilities, in particular for those online sources that offer
the concept of cryptocurrency blockchain sources should be
simple graph visualizations and explorations across time. In
able to apply to other blockchains, there are some differences
particular, we saw a need for interactive tools that allow users
to explore how their activities manifest on the blockchain in the detailed mechanism (e.g., the transaction data structure
and mining protocol) that need to be considered in the design
and to show what data can or could be inferred about them
of visualization systems. The visualization of private and con-
through their blockchain use. This could in particular help
sortium blockchains, or blockchains for non-cryptocurrency
novices assess and adjust their transaction patterns.
IEEE TVCG SURVEY PAPER - REVISED VERSION 16
use cases such as in healthcare [26], mobility [18], supply provide many single view charts showing a particular
chain management [38], or for government services [47] are blockchain measure over time. Single disconnected views
fruitful areas for future works. make it difficult to relate multiple blockchain characteristics
to each other. BitExTract [O23] is one example that broke
the trend and proposes a dashboard with multiple chart
7.4 The Missing Context of Blockchain Data elements for analyzing transaction activities among Bitcoin
The majority of visualization sources presented detail about exchange entities. Yet, additional sophisticated interaction
blockchain components and overviews of network activities techniques for visual comparison [17] would help to connect
in the transaction detail analysis and P2P network analysis views and generate more comprehensive insights.
task domains. What is missing in most sources is information New visual representations for transaction network
that provides context for monitoring and analysis of activities analysis: Existing network visualization sources present
in the blockchain, including the identification of entities, transaction networks and value flows as static graphs at
geographic information, social network activity, or historic specific points of interest (i.e. a point in time, a specific block,
events. or for a group of entities). However, those tools mostly do not
In the big cryptocurrency blockchains, users remain consider the temporal evolution of the network and, in par-
anonymous by using multiple non-identifiable addressesto ticular, changes of blockchain connectivity over time; we saw
send and receive cryptocurrency value. Identity is only no dynamic network visualizations [6]. Besides, blockchain
revealed if people or enterprises post their addresses openly networks have specific network properties which could
and connect them to other pieces of identification, suchas benefit from dedicated network layouts. For example, they
forum user names, their websites, etc. If one wants to are directed and time-oriented. For Bitcoin, the addresses can
understand how cryptocurrencies are used in regards to what be clustered and so the raw graph can be simplified using
is known about fiat currencies, information about which ad- well-known heuristics [20], leading to simpler visualizations.
dresses belong to the same entities (such as individual users, Uncertainty visualization: Much of the contextual infor-
businesses receiving Bitcoin for payment, or exchanges) is mation related to Bitcoin comes with a degree of uncertainty.
required. Heuristics exist that help to cluster addresses and For example, heuristics to cluster Bitcoin entities are not
identify entities with a degree of uncertainty [37] but entity- sure to capture Bitcoin entities with 100% accuracy and IP-
based visualizations are, nevertheless, rare (e.g., [V7], [V14], addresses of nodes in the P2P network are not necessarily
[O10]). reliable indicators of the geographic location of a node. In
The blockchain network involves many anonymous addition, analysis tools that may label certain transaction
participants interacting with each other through committing patterns as fraudulent or belonging to certain services (e.g.,
and validating transactions in the P2P network. It would be exchanges, mixing services, etc.) may make false predictions.
interesting to study the collective activities of participants in Any uncertainty in the data should be made evident in the
the blockchain network in light of historical events, such as visualization [29] [35] and expose where viewers should be
from volatility of market prices, cyber-attacks (e.g., Mt. Gox cautious about inferring insights and making decisions on
hack, Bitcoin theft, and denial-of-service attacks), the data.
government regulation, or changing in mining rewards. The Progressive visual analytics: Exploring Blockchain data
existing visualization sources have been used mostly for involves navigating over large amounts of data for comput-
dedicated task domain (i.e. transaction detail analysis, ing aggregated values on selections of the transactions or
transaction network analysis, or P2P network analysis) over time windows. These operations are usually simple
without providing the capability to investigate historical to compute but take a long time. Work shown in research
events in a holistic view. articles usually does computation offline to allow visual-
ization tools to remain interactive. However, doing the
7.5 Open Blockchain Visualization Challenges operations offline means that the data exploration is limited
Blockchain technology produces a large transactional dataset, to pre-computed values, and all the interactive tools we
rich in details, including sophisticated maintenance mech- reviewed were limited in that respect. For continuously
anisms which are interesting for analysis. The complexity computing derived data when the Blockchain evolves, for
of working with blockchain data comes both from both e.g., maintaining the clustered Bitcoin entities up-to-date,
technical aspects and its social component related to many techniques inspired by Boukhelifa et al. [9] could be applied.
social networks in general. Blockchain data is more complex To allow more open-ended explorations on Bitcoin data,
than most social networks due to its pseudonymous use of novel tools could rely on progressive data analysis and
addresses and the nature of the data is carries, usually mon- visualization [16], [40]. For example, Kinkeldey et al. report
etary value. Therefore, it is unlikely that simple views will that BitConduite [V7] provides dynamic queries on timeand
ever be able to convey the richness of information it carries. attribute values to visualize aggregated information about
Most visualization sources we surveyed focused on using Bitcoin transactions, but each filter operations make take a
common chart types (i.e. time series and basic charts) with minute or so to complete depending on the amount ofloaded
basic interaction techniques (i.e. querying and zooming), that data. Performing these operations progressively using
are not sufficient for advanced analysis tasks. Here we list methods reported by Moritz et al. [31] would drastically
several opportunities to improve existing visualizations used reduce the interactive latency and greatly improve the
and opportunities to develop new dedicated representations. efficiency of exploring Bitcoin data, and could perhaps even
Multiple views visualization of blockchain data: cope with the complete Bitcoin blockchain data.
Sources from data analysis articles and online sources usually Evaluation: In our survey, we found that 9 out of 14
IEEE TVCG SURVEY PAPER - REVISED VERSION 17
visualization articles evaluated the usability of their tools by blockchains in recent years, the need for more VA tools
either demonstrating case studies ([V2], [V8], [V9], [V11], will grow and we outline several fruitful opportunities for
[V13], [V14]) or performing user evaluation ([V5], [V7], research on blockchain visual analytics. Application areas
[V9]). The fact that the majority of Bitcoin visualizations include the exploration and monitoring of activitiesin the
are published without formal task analyses or evaluation blockchain network and more advanced tools for
(at least as evident for research articles), is a clear sign understanding different uses for blockchains.
that more visualization research is needed in this domain.
This could be achieved by providing easier research access ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
to updated blockchain data or developing easy to deploy This research work has been carried out under the leader-
analysis infrastructures. Some work in this direction has been ship of the Institute for Technological Research SystemX, and
started with e.g., BlockchainDB [21] and BlockSci [24] but therefore granted with public funds within the scope of the
will need further development to become usable on visual French Program Investissements d’Avenir.
analytics infrastructures. This would allow researchers on
Bitcoin analysis tools to focus on designing analysis tools
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IEEE TVCG SURVEY PAPER - REVISED VERSION 21
Nicolas Heulot is a research engineer at Insti-
tute for Technological Research SystemX, France.
He recevied the Ph.D. in Computer Science from
University of Paris-Sud, France in 2014. His main
research areas are Visual Analytics and
Blockchain.