Visualizing Bitcoin OTC Trust Networks

Below is a who-trusts-whom network of people who trade using Bitcoin on a platform called Bitcoin OTC. Since Bitcoin users are anonymous, there is a need to maintain a record of users' reputation to prevent transactions with fraudulent and risky users. Members of Bitcoin OTC rate other members in a scale of -10 (total distrust) to +10 (total trust) in steps of 1.

Let's see if we can produce some meaningful insights by visualizing a snapshot of the network.

Dataset statistics

  • Nodes 5,881
  • Edges 35,592
  • Range of edge weight -10 to +10
  • Percentage of positive edges 89%

Sampling

One month sample is used with a broad range of ratings.

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Visualizing Historical Bitcoin Prices

This notebook explores visualizing historical price data for Bitcoin. A colorized candlestick chart helps visualize daily price trends and larger time frame price trends together: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candlestick_chart

Fetching Historical Price Data

Candlestick Chart

Use matplotlib and mpl finance library for candlestick support: https://github.com/matplotlib/mpl_finance

Chart shows:

  • Bitcoin prices organized by day (in UTC)
  • X-axis is Date
  • Y-axis is Price at Open, High, Low, and Close of the day

Interpretation

  • Color:
    • Green candlesticks are "bullish" trend days (increased price)
    • Red candlesticks are "bearish" trend days (decreased price)
  • Body: Difference between open and close, day's trend strengh
  • Shadows: Day's price range, high above open/close, low below open/close
  • more ...