A new study carried out by a number of Texas-based universities has revealed that Bitcoin might not exactly be the anonymous, decentralized alternative to traditional financial systems, a tale often told by its biggest proponents. The focus of the research paper, which has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, is on the early years of the digital currency as it first achieved parity with the U.S. dollar.
As outlined in the paper’s abstract, the team of researchers was able to deduce with near certainty (greater than 99 percent sensitivity and specificity) the identities of the most active individuals on the Bitcoin blockchain since its inception in 2009. According to their methodologies, the majority of the Bitcoin mining that took place between launch and the moment its price hit $1 was carried out by just 64 individuals.
