Understanding Ethereum via Graph Analysis

Ethereum, a blockchain, supports its own cryptocurrency named Ether and smart contracts. Although more than 8M smart contracts have been deployed on Ethereum, little is known about the characteristics of its users, smart contracts, and the relationships among them. We conduct the first systematic st...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inACM transactions on Internet technology Vol. 20; no. 2; pp. 1 - 32
Main Authors Chen, Ting, Li, Zihao, Zhu, Yuxiao, Chen, Jiachi, Luo, Xiapu, Lui, John Chi-Shing, Lin, Xiaodong, Zhang, Xiaosong
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 01.05.2020
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Summary:Ethereum, a blockchain, supports its own cryptocurrency named Ether and smart contracts. Although more than 8M smart contracts have been deployed on Ethereum, little is known about the characteristics of its users, smart contracts, and the relationships among them. We conduct the first systematic study on Ethereum by leveraging graph analysis to characterize three major activities on Ethereum, namely money transfer, smart contract creation, and smart contract invocation. We collect all transaction data, construct three graphs from the data to characterize major activities via graph analysis, and discover new insights. Moreover, we address three security issues based on graphs.
ISSN:1533-5399
1557-6051
DOI:10.1145/3381036