The structure and evolution of an offline peer-to-peer financial network

Abstract

In this work, we investigate the structure and evolution of Venmo, one of the most popular peer-to-peer (P2P) mobile payment applications. A unique aspect of the network under consideration is that the edges among nodes represent financial transactions between individuals who shared an offline social interaction. We present a series of static and dynamic measurements that summarize the key aspects of any social network, namely the degree distribution, density, and connectivity. We find that the degree distributions do not follow a power-law distribution. With regards to density and connectivity, Venmo’s network exhibits densification and resilience, which indicate a high level of engagement from its users. Last, we examine the “topological” version of the small-world hypothesis, and find that Venmo users are separated by a mean of 5.9 steps and a median of 6 steps.