This study, to the best of our knowledge for the first time, delves into the spatiotemporal dynamics of Bitcoin transactions, shedding light on the scaling laws governing its geographic usage. Leveraging a dataset of IP addresses and Bitcoin addresses spanning from October 2013 to December 2013, we explore the geospatial patterns unique to Bitcoin. Motivated by the needs of cryptocurrency businesses, regulatory clarity, and network science inquiries, we make several contributions. Firstly, we empirically characterize Bitcoin transactions' spatiotemporal scaling laws, providing insights into its spending behaviours. Secondly, we introduce a Markovian model that effectively approximates Bitcoin's observed spatiotemporal patterns, revealing economic connections among user groups in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Our measurements and model shed light on the inhomogeneous structure of the network: although Bitcoin is designed to be decentralized, there are significant geographical differences in the distribution of user activity, which has consequences for all participants and possible (regulatory) control over the system.

翻译：本研究首次深入探讨了比特币交易的空时动态，揭示了其地理使用中存在的标度律。利用2013年10月至2013年12月期间的IP地址与比特币地址数据集，我们探索了比特币特有的地理空间模式。受加密货币商业需求、监管清晰化及网络科学探究的驱动，本文做出了若干贡献。首先，我们通过实证刻画了比特币交易的空时标度律，揭示了其消费行为的内在规律。其次，我们提出了一种马尔可夫模型，该模型能够有效近似观测到的比特币空时模式，展现了比特币生态中用户群体间的经济联系。我们的测量与模型揭示了该网络的非均匀结构：尽管比特币的设计初衷是去中心化的，但用户活动分布存在显著的地理差异，这将对所有参与者以及可能的（监管）控制机制产生影响。