Visualization of Blockchain Consensus Degradation

In this paper we present a prototype system for easy testing and visualization of the Bitcoin consensus protocol. The system consists of a modified version of the Bitcoin Core client which is intended to run on Raspberry PI machines, modified so that the latency in the block production and propagation can be manually introduced, which simulates network communication issues in the real Bitcoin network. Built-in LCD displays on each machine visualize current state of their local blockchains which allows easy visual observation of the consensus in the network. As machines are running fully capable Bitcoin Core clients, as well as mining clients for production of new blocks in the Proof of Work (PoW) consensus protocol, it is possible to investigate different configuration scenarios and when these lead to the break of the consensus.