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Understanding Ethereum via Graph Analysis

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Published:17 April 2020Publication History
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Abstract

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.

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      • Published in

        cover image ACM Transactions on Internet Technology
        ACM Transactions on Internet Technology  Volume 20, Issue 2
        Special Section on Emotions in Conflictual Social Interactions and Regular Papers
        May 2020
        256 pages
        ISSN:1533-5399
        EISSN:1557-6051
        DOI:10.1145/3386441
        • Editor:
        • Ling Liu
        Issue’s Table of Contents

        Copyright © 2020 ACM

        Publisher

        Association for Computing Machinery

        New York, NY, United States

        Publication History

        • Published: 17 April 2020
        • Accepted: 1 January 2020
        • Revised: 1 November 2019
        • Received: 1 June 2019
        Published in toit Volume 20, Issue 2

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