Logo
  • News
  • Cryptocurrencies
  • Data
  • Indices
  • Research
  • Events
  • Sponsored
  • Sign In
  • Sign Up
BTC logo
BTC
$118,280.31
0.01%
ETH logo
ETH
$3,855.49
0.83%
XRP logo
XRP
$3.1331
0.11%
USDT logo
USDT
$0.9999
0.01%
BNB logo
BNB
$800.18
0.51%
SOL logo
SOL
$180.46
0.74%
USDC logo
USDC
$0.9999
0.01%
DOGE logo
DOGE
$0.2224
0.48%
TRX logo
TRX
$0.3262
2.93%
ADA logo
ADA
$0.7788
0.79%
HYPE logo
HYPE
$43.11
1.12%
SUI logo
SUI
$3.8510
1.09%
XLM logo
XLM
$0.4238
1.34%
LINK logo
LINK
$17.97
1.03%
BCH logo
BCH
$583.46
2.75%
HBAR logo
HBAR
$0.2716
4.00%
AVAX logo
AVAX
$23.86
1.46%
WBT logo
WBT
$44.10
0.31%
LTC logo
LTC
$110.47
1.21%
USDE logo
USDE
$1.0009
0.01%
BTC logo
BTC
$118,280.31
0.01%
ETH logo
ETH
$3,855.49
0.83%
XRP logo
XRP
$3.1331
0.11%
USDT logo
USDT
$0.9999
0.01%
BNB logo
BNB
$800.18
0.51%
SOL logo
SOL
$180.46
0.74%
USDC logo
USDC
$0.9999
0.01%
DOGE logo
DOGE
$0.2224
0.48%
TRX logo
TRX
$0.3262
2.93%
ADA logo
ADA
$0.7788
0.79%
HYPE logo
HYPE
$43.11
1.12%
SUI logo
SUI
$3.8510
1.09%
XLM logo
XLM
$0.4238
1.34%
LINK logo
LINK
$17.97
1.03%
BCH logo
BCH
$583.46
2.75%
HBAR logo
HBAR
$0.2716
4.00%
AVAX logo
AVAX
$23.86
1.46%
WBT logo
WBT
$44.10
0.31%
LTC logo
LTC
$110.47
1.21%
USDE logo
USDE
$1.0009
0.01%
Ad
Markets
Share this article
X iconX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmail

The Top 10 Cryptocurrency Research Papers of 2015

Ledger Journal managing editor Peter Rizen presents his picks for the top cryptocurrency research papers of 2015.

By Peter Rizun
Updated Mar 6, 2023, 3:37 p.m. Published Dec 27, 2015, 12:11 p.m.
research paper

Dr. Peter R Rizun is a managing editor for Ledger— the first peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency research. The deadline for submissions for Ledger's inaugural edition is 31st December, 2015.

What a long, strange trip it’s been! Only four years ago, and two years after it started as a novelty in 2009, Reuben Grinberg published the first academic articlehttp://hstlj.org/articles/bitcoin-an-innovative-alternative-digital-currency on bitcoin, "BitCoin: An Innovative Alternative Digital Currency," in the 2011 issue of the Hastings Science & Technology Law Journal.

jwp-player-placeholder
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.

Since then, the pace of bitcoin research has accelerated to the point where it justifies its own peer-reviewed journal: Ledger.

In this article, I present a "Top 10" list of research papers published in 2015. The editors at Ledger think of each of them as "the one that got away", because they represent the kind of research that the journal supports.

While this list is by no means authoritative (and most certainly subjective), it reviews some of the year’s most influential papers, and presents several others that were praised in academic circles but received little exposure within the bitcoin community.

We watch with excitement as increasing numbers of people begin to comprehend bitcoin’s potential ramifications on our future world, and we look forward in anticipation to the results from cryptocurrency work and discovery that will undoubtedly come in 2016.

The list is a broad mix of papers from engineering, the sciences and economics that contributed to the nascent field of cryptocurrency research.

10. SoK: Research Perspectives and Challenges for Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies

Authors: Joseph Bonneau, Andrew Miller, Jeremy Clark, Arvind Narayanan, Joshua A. Kroll and Edward W Felten.

Given bitcoin’s cypherpunk roots, its scattered documentation, and its lack of a formal specifications, Bonneau, Miller, Clark, Narayanan, Kroll and Felten complete the monumental tasks of producing the "first systematic exposition of bitcoin".

Written in the form of a review article, the paper collects, organizes and synthesizes a huge body of prior work — from academic sources spanning three decades, to IRC logs, online discussion forums and developer mailing lists.

They identify three components of bitcoin’s design that can be decoupled and analyzed individually: (1) transactions and scripts, (2) consensus and mining, and (3) the peer-to-peer communication network.

They also speak to the mystery of how a quarter century of academics was unable to discover what (apparently) came intuitively to Satoshi Nakamoto.

This is a must-read article for those interested in quickly getting up to speed on the current state of computer science research in cryptocurrency.

9. Eclipse Attacks on Bitcoin’s Peer-to-Peer Network

Authors: Ethan Heilman, Alison Kendler, Aviv Zohar and Sharon Goldberg.

Security researchers have been eager to identify new attack vectors against the bitcoin network since the authors of the "selfish mining" paper garnered praise and publicity in 2013.

Presented in August

during the 24th USENIX Security Symposium in Washington, DC, authors Heilman, Kendler, Zohar and Goldberg reveal the "eclipse attack", in which the attacker "monopolizes all of the victim’s incoming and outgoing connections, thus isolating the victim from the rest of its peers in the network".

The attacker can then trick the victim by feeding him misinformation about the state of the ledger, or coopt the victim's computing power for its own nefarious purposes.

8. Confidential Transactions

Author: Gregory Maxwell

That there is a strong desire for financial privacy in bitcoin comes as no surprise, given the community’s historically libertarian leanings. Possibly no one has made more of an impact fostering privacy-enhancing techniques than Gregory Maxwell.

Following up on his 2013 invention of "coinjoin", in this report Maxwell presents his latest cutting-edge research. "Confidential Transactions" is a technique that permits users to hide the values of their payments from the public, yet — with novel cryptographic methods— present sufficient information to allow miners to verify that the sum of the coins transacted is preserved.

Implementing confidential transactions in bitcoin requires significant protocol changes; however, experimentation is currently being carried out on Blockstream sidechains.

7. Does Governance Have a Role in Pricing? Cross-Country Evidence from Bitcoin Markets

Author: Robert Viglione

In this paper, PhD candidate Robert Viglione statistically proves an inverse relationship between economic freedom and bitcoin price premiums.

His methodology represents a potential market-based — rather than expert-defined —measure of economic freedom that is updated in real time, rather than annually. This might provide us with data needed to run event studies that document the market’s perception of elections, for example.

It also shows that even at this early, volatile stage, bitcoin is generating useful macroeconomic data.

6. Bitcoin in Islamic Banking and Finance

Author: Charles W Evans

Considering that Muslims make up about 25% of the world’s population, and that bitcoin is free of interest, Professor Charles Evans argues that the overlap between hard-money advocacy and Shari'a-compliant finance is large enough for these two communities to build intellectual bridges.

This paper

has put bitcoin on the radar of many people previously far-removed from cryptocurrency, resulting in a surprising amount of attention from Muslims worldwide.

5. Bitcoin-NG: A Scalable Blockchain Protocol

Authors: Ittay Eyal, Adem Efe Gencer, Emin Gun Sirer and Robbert van Renesse

As a follow-up to the influential 2013 manuscript on selfish mining, Cornell investigators Eyal, Gencer, Sirer and van Renesse do not disappoint.

Bitcoin-NG

is a radical scalability proposal that employs "micro blocks" and "key blocks" to bypass the tradeoff between transactional throughput and latency in bitcoin’s present peer-to-peer communication network.

In addition to benchmarking the performance of their proposal using a large-scale bitcoin-network simulator, the authors also introduce several novel metrics such as consensus delay and mining power utilization for quantifying the security and efficiency of blockchain protocols.

4. Digital Currencies

Author: Bank of International Settlements, Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures

In its November report, this Bank of International Settlements committee recognized bitcoin’s distributed ledger technology (the Blockchain) as a "genuinely innovative element within digital currency schemes".

The report states that such ledgers may offer lower costs to end users compared with existing centralized arrangements and that digital currencies such as bitcoin might address gaps in traditional payment services.

3. Should Cryptocurrencies be Included in the Portfolio of the International Reserves Held by the Central Bank of Barbados?

Authors: Winston Moore and Jeremy Stephen

In this working paper from the Central Bank of Barbados, economists Winston Moore and Jeremy Stephen conclude that holding a small portion of reserve assets in bitcoin could be beneficial to the small island nation.

The appropriate portfolio allocation could both improve returns and increase diversity against speculative attacks, without significantly affecting the volatility of the reserve balance.

The authors recognize that "digital currency could become a key currency for settling transactions" and that it is necessary for central banks to evaluate their potential impact.

This paper is significant because it reveals the emerging worldwide recognition of bitcoin as a useful store of value among central bank authorities.

2. The Bitcoin Backbone Protocol

Authors: Juan A Garay, Aggelos Kiayias and Nikos Leonardos

Already with 24 citations attesting to its impact, "The Bitcoin Backbone Protocol" provides one of the first "provable security" models for a cryptocurrency's consensus algorithm.

Authors Garay, Kiayias and Leonardos "extract and analyze the core of the Bitcoin protocol," framing their analysis in terms of two novel properties they refer to as common prefix and chain quality.

The common prefix property relates to the network’s ability to converge upon a single history, while the chain quality property describes the degree to which a malicious entity can gain an advantage in excess of its mining power.

Their results align with those from Eyal and Sirer (selfish mining) and in fact broadly generalize the underlying concepts.

1. The Bitcoin Lightning Network: Scalable Off-Chain Instant Payments

Authors: Joseph Poon and Thaddeus Dryja

In perhaps the most influential paper of 2015, Poon and Dryja present their invention: the Bitcoin Lightning Network, which is an extension of two-party payment channels applied in such a way as to permit instant transactions between any number of participants.

Lightning transactions are normal bitcoin transactions, but— except for rare cases — are not actually posted to the Blockchain. Because the bulk of the transactional data is stored privately, lightning transactions are expected to be significantly less expensive than on-chain bitcoin transactions, thereby enabling affordable micropayments.

Poon and Dryja’s vision may soon be realized, as Blockstream continues to work towards making the Lightning Network a reality.

Research paper image via Shutterstock

Note: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinDesk, Inc. or its owners and affiliates.

Academic Research2015-reviewFeatures
Peter Rizun

Picture of CoinDesk author Peter Rizun

More For You

WIF Suffers Sharp 11% Decline Before Mounting Recovery to $1.21

By CD Analytics
Jul 23, 2025
"WIF price chart showing an 11% intraday decline to $1.16 support followed by recovery to $1.21 amid strong institutional buying and technical cup-and-handle pattern signaling potential upside."

Solana-based digital asset demonstrates institutional resilience following support test at $1.16, as large-scale investor activity and technical formations suggest potential upside momentum.

Read full story
Latest Crypto News
Article image

lorem ipsum article 1

19 hours ago
CoinDesk

Multisig Failures Dominate as $2B Is Lost in Web3 Hacks in the First Half

Jul 24, 2025
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon

Crypto Industry Asks President Trump to Stop JPMorgan’s 'Punitive Tax' on Data Access

Jul 24, 2025
WIF Experiences 11% Intraday Swing with Institutional Support Driving Recovery to $1.21 Amid Bullish Technical Signals

WIF Suffers Sharp 11% Decline Before Mounting Recovery to $1.21

Jul 23, 2025
A momentum indicator has turned green for BTC bulls. (geralt/Pixabay)

[Article test] Bitcoin Climbs to $105K; Crypto ETF Issuer Sees 35% Upside

Jul 23, 2025
(CJ/Unsplash)

[Test] Bitcoin Perp Futures Open Interest on Offshore Platforms Surges The Most Since Trump's Crypto Reserve Disclosure

Jul 21, 2025
Top Stories
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

JPMorgan To Allow Clients To Buy Bitcoin, Says Jamie Dimon

May 19, 2025
Consensus 2025: Anthony Scaramucci, Founder, SkyBridge Capital

Scaramucci Says Bitcoin Treasury Trend Will Fade Despite Saylor’s Success

Jul 2, 2025
A barman shakes a cocktail shaker with an array of drinks bottles behind him.

Crypto Daybook Americas: Bitcoin Whiplash Shakes Market as U.S. Yield Spike Threatens Bull Run

May 19, 2025
Mike Novogratz, Galaxy founder and CEO, speaks at Consensus 2024 (CoinDesk/Shutterstock/Suzanne Cordiero)

The Bull Case for Galaxy Digital Is AI Data Centers Not Bitcoin Mining, Research Firm Says

May 19, 2025
Tokyo, Japan (Jaison Lin/Unsplash)

Metaplanet Buys Another 1,004 Bitcoin, Lifts Holdings to Over $800M Worth of BTC

May 19, 2025
A roller coaster. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Bulls and Bears Get Caught off Guard as Bitcoin Jumps to $106K, Then Falls Back to $103K

May 19, 2025

Only 2 articles remaining this month.

Sign up for free

About

  • About Us
  • Masthead
  • Careers
  • CoinDesk News
  • Crypto API Documentation
  • Blog

Contact

  • Contact Us
  • Accessibility
  • Advertise
  • Sitemap
  • System Status
Disclosure & Polices
CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of the Bullish group, which owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish group equity-based compensation. Bullish was incubated by technology investor Block.one.
EthicsPrivacyTerms of UseCookie SettingsDo Not Sell My Info

© 2025 CoinDesk, Inc.
X icon
Sign Up
  • News
    Back to menu
    News
    • Markets
    • Finance
    • Tech
    • Policy
    • Focus
  • Cryptocurrencies
    Back to menu
    Cryptocurrencies
    • Data
      Back to menu
      Data
      • Trade Data
      • Derivatives
      • Order Book Data
      • On-Chain Data
      • API
      • Research & Insights
      • Data Catalogue
      • AI & Machine Learning
    • Indices
      Back to menu
      Indices
      • Multi-Asset Indices
      • Reference Rates
      • Strategies and Services
      • API
      • Insights & Announcements
      • Documentation & Governance
    • Research
      Back to menu
      Research
      • Events
        Back to menu
        Events
        • CoinDesk: Policy & Regulation
        • Consensus Hong Kong
        • Consensus Miami
      • Sponsored
        Back to menu
        Sponsored
        • Thought Leadership
        • Press Releases
        • CoinW
        • MEXC
        • Phemex
        • Advertise
      • Videos
        Back to menu
        Videos
        • CoinDesk Daily
        • Shorts
        • Editor's Picks
      • Podcasts
        Back to menu
        Podcasts
        • CoinDesk Podcast Network
        • Markets Daily
        • Gen C
        • Unchained with Laura Shin
        • The Mining Pod
      • Newsletters
        Back to menu
        Newsletters
        • The Node
        • Crypto Daybook Americas
        • State of Crypto
        • Crypto Long & Short
        • Crypto for Advisors
      • Webinars
        Back to menu
        Webinars
        Select Language
        English enEspañol esFilipino filFrançais frItaliano itPortuguês pt-brРусский ruУкраїнська ukDeutsch deNederlands nl한국어 ko中文 zh