A Bitcoin Blockchain Transaction Visualization + Sonification “chains" at ZKM (March, 2016) with support of sivira https://sivira.co

1. A Bitcoin Blockchain Transaction Visualization + Sonification
“chains"
at ZKM (March, 2016)
Daito Manabe + Yusuke Tomoto + 2bit Ishii

2. In recent years, there has been a growing public interest in
blockchain technology along with the buzzword fintech on google
trends. One of the most successful examples using blockchain is the
cryptocurrency bitcoin. Bitcoin does not depend on a central agency as
does the conventional legal tender, but because it can perform highly
anonymous transactions across borders, it has created a new mechanism
for business activities. At the same time, the possibility of its
misuse, such as money laundering and financing for anti-social groups,
has been pointed out. Accordingly, its treatment differs from country
to country. It still has problems even though it has already been
implemented in society, e.g. one of bitcoin’s main former developers
says that mining is carried out by some people.
In this work, visualization to study blockchain and an automated
trading system have been developed and displayed.

3. detail

4. “chains” is an interactive 2-channel video and 4-channel sound installation,
which has two modes “visualization” and “game”.
These modes can be switched by using dial interface which is put on the pedestal
in front of screens.

5. “visualization”
shows following phenomenon in real-time:
- How does block chain system works, does transactions propagate,
and blocks are generated.
These are technical aspect of blockchain.
- How is bitcoin bought/sold, are ask/bid quotes ordered on various bitcoin
trading exchange.
And which exchange is more active or not.
These are financial aspect of bitcoin.
“game”
is an experiment running five automated trading system (bots).
Each bot has its own trading algorithm aimed to increase its asset.
Their trading performances and avatars of bots which behave according to its internal status
are displayed on the screen.
On both of modes, sounds are generated according to the data.
visualization game

8. system

9. technical setup
PC1
- visual app
PC2
- sound app
- data acquisition
network hub
internet
2 projectors
DVI
ethernet
audioUSB
powermate
HDD
USB
Remote PC3
- automated trading
- record history data
off-site
blockchain
/bitcoin APIs

10. dataflow
PC1
- visual app
PC2
- sound app
- data acquisition
1. data (blockchain
/bitcoin api)
2. stream data to visualiser
3. send sound event
Remote PC3
- automated trading
- record history data
off-site
(automated trading)
send bot performance/history

11. screen size: 973 x 602 cm
distance from floor: 120cm
opening angle between the two screens: 97,5
screen settings

12. interaction
push
visualization game
rotate L
rotate R
scene change
to game
scene change
to visualization
-
-
choose bot
choose bot

13. required equipments
Name of equipments total
MacBookPro Retina 15inch 2
Projector 2
Ethernet cable 3
Thunderbolt-Ethernet adaptor 2
Griffin PowerMate 1
USB extension cable 1
Audio Mixer 1
Speaker 4
Wired internet connection *

14. with support of