This article presents a detailed analysis of the Bitcoin network (Bitcoin) and its main participants, carried out by authoritative experts - Igor Makarov from the London School of Economics and Antoinette Shoart from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - on behalf of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - a private organization in the United States. The Bitcoin network is defined as a new database that includes a large number of public and proprietary sources for linking bitcoin addresses to real objects and an extensive set of algorithms for extracting information about the behavior of major market participants. The analysis of the Bitcoin ecosystem consisted of three main stages. First, the volume of transactions and the network structure of the main participants in the blockchain are analyzed. Secondly, the concentration and regional composition of miners who carry out verification (verification) and ensure the integrity of the blockchain registry (ledger, ledger) are documented. Thirdly, the concentration of ownership of the largest holders of bitcoins is considered.