Rafah Amer Jaafar, Saad N. Alsaad, Mohammed N. Al‐Kabi
Educational certificate counterfeiting is a major global challenge. There is no doubt that addressing both the problem of forgery and the verification of academic certificates is a fundamental issue that deserves research, development, and support at the highest levels. This paper presents a decentralized educational certificate verification system leveraging the Ethereum blockchain and the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) to combat counterfeiting. Ropsten is used as a real-life Ethereum test network to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system. IPFS is used to store educational certificate files on a decentralised file system. The smart contract is built in the Solidity language, compiled, and deployed using the online Remix IDE. The verification process is supported by scanning a QR code, which retrieves the validating certificate’s information from the Ethereum network in real-time.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Decentralized Federated Learning (FL) offers a paradigm where independent entities collaboratively train a machine learning model while preserving the privacy of their datasets. Integrating blockchain technology into decentralized FL frameworks is critical to establishing the trust necessary for user participation. However, existing FL systems using blockchain often struggle with scalability, latency, and privacy issues, particularly in permissionless blockchain contexts. This paper proposes OpenFL, a novel, collateral-backed reputation system implemented on the Ethereum blockchain. This system aims to foster trust among participants in a decentralized FL environment. We present a fully autonomous smart contract platform specifically tailored to facilitate FL processes among anonymous users. Furthermore, we address potential security concerns by detailing our strategies to mitigate various attack vectors. To validate our system’s efficacy, we conducted experiments on the Ethereum Ropsten testnet using the MNIST and CIFAR-10 datasets. Our findings demonstrate OpenFL’s capability to overcome the inherent limitations of permissionless blockchains while highlighting the significance of open-access protocols in this context. OpenFL can potentially broaden the participant base in trust-sensitive applications by reducing entry barriers, thus substantially contributing to decentralized machine learning.
The Southern regions of India, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Indonesia are where teak originated. Teak is a high-value wood that used to be an export good for Thailand, bringing in a lot of money. Thailand produced approximately 71,954.53 m3 of teak plantation timber and exported wood products worth 1.1 billion baht overseas in 2018, according to the Forest Industry Organization (FIO). Due to its high demand, there is also a chance that smuggled wood from within the country or wood that has been illegally obtained abroad will enter the supply chain. Encroachment and illegal logging are still major problems in Thailand. Blockchain technology has become extremely popular due to its distinctive immutability and traceability properties, which have the opportunity to overcome a variety of issues. In order to get rid of illegal teak timber and achieve traceable, transparent, and reliable teak data that is moved through the teak supply chain, we present a decentralized application (DApp) based on the Ethereum blockchain that implements a traceability system for teak identity. According to the findings of the experiment, our DApp achieves a good trade-off between the system’s gas cost of 116K (2.53 USD) to store data in the Ethereum blockchain and provide high security, transparency, privacy, resilience, and robustness. We observed that the newly proposed blockchain-based system can reduce illegal logging, the usage of paper-based documentation, and the time needed to validate the documentation in teak supply chain controls when we compared it to the traditional process used in the supply chain.
: In the realm of data management, data preservation stands as a critical undertaking aimed at preserving and upholding the integrity of data. Regardless of whether it concerns personal or enterprise data, the detrimental effects of malicious alterations implemented by attackers cannot be overlooked. Particularly in conventional industrial control environments, the prevalent practice involves the transmission of data from sensors to databases for storage purposes. However, it is essential to recognize that this process exposes the data to various vulnerabilities. Thus, to ensure the long-term security and reliability of the data, it becomes imperative to implement robust data preservation strategies within these industrial control systems. However, the reliance of these databases on physical hard disks introduces inherent vulnerabilities, including the potential for data loss due to disk damage or targeted malicious attacks. Consequently, it becomes imperative to prioritize the implementation of robust data preservation measures. These measures are crucial in mitigating the risk of disruptions and protecting critical data from compromise. By establishing effective data backup systems, employing advanced security protocols, and implementing proactive monitoring mechanisms, organizations can bolster their data preservation capabilities and safeguard against potential threats to data integrity and availability. As a result, many enterprises opt to store their data with third-party providers to ensure data integrity. However, this approach carries inherent risks. If the third-party service experiences an attack or if the data is tampered with, it becomes challenging to verify the integrity of the data. To address these concerns and ensure data preservation within the context of the Internet of Things (IoT), a growing number of individuals are integrating IoT with Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). By leveraging DLT, the integrity of data can be ensured, reducing reliance on centralized third-party storage and enhancing security in the IoT ecosystem. In this article, IOTA is the DLT, which employs Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) to store transaction information. Compared to Ethereum or other blockchain technologies, IOTA offers notable advantages in terms of transaction verification speed, making it highly suitable for real-time IoT environments. However, the conventional transmission path from sensors to IOTA nodes entails a complex route, involving multiple hardware devices before reaching the intended destination. This complexity poses challenges in ensuring data integrity during transmission and introduces vulnerabilities such as man-in-the-middle attacks or SQL injection attacks. To address these issues, we propose a method to streamline the transmission path between sensors and IOTA, specifically tailored for industrial fields with numerous IoT devices. Our approach involves preprocessing the data stored on the server using our method before uploading, ensuring data confidentiality, and leveraging IOTA to guarantee data integrity. To achieve the shortest path between IoT and DLT nodes, it becomes necessary to establish IOTA nodes on lower-level devices, such as Raspberry Pi or IoT controllers. By simplifying the transmission path, we can reduce the potential for tampering and enhance overall data security. Implementing our proposed method enables the assurance of data confidentiality and integrity during both transmission and storage on the server, strengthening the trustworthiness of the IoT, and IOTA integration.
T. Niedermayer, Pietro Saggese, Bernhard Haslhofer
The integration of bots in Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) fosters efficiency and automation. However, their use is also associated with predatory trading and market manipulation, and can pose threats to system integrity. It is therefore essential to understand the extent of bot deployment in DLTs; despite this, current detection systems are predominantly rule-based and lack flexibility. In this study, we present a novel approach that utilizes machine learning for the detection of financial bots on the Ethereum platform. First, we systematize existing scientific literature and collect anecdotal evidence to establish a taxonomy for financial bots, comprising 7 categories and 24 subcategories. Next, we create a ground-truth dataset consisting of 133 human and 137 bot addresses. Third, we employ both unsupervised and supervised machine learning algorithms to detect bots deployed on Ethereum. The highest-performing clustering algorithm is a Gaussian Mixture Model with an average cluster purity of 82.6%, while the highest-performing model for binary classification is a Random Forest with an accuracy of 83%. Our machine learning-based detection mechanism contributes to understanding the Ethereum ecosystem dynamics by providing additional insights into the current bot landscape.
As a matter of fact, stock market prediction remains a challenging and crucial aspect of investment decision-making. Contemporarily, cryptocurrencies are one of the hottest underlying assets on account of its high volatility. In this case, based on high accuracy prediction, it is available to achieve large extra return from the crypto markets. With this in mind, this study investigates the usage of machine learning algorithms, including LSTM, GRU, as well as bi-LSTM, for predicting cryptocurrency prices, focusing on Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), as well as Litecoin (LTC). According to the analysis, the study reveals that the GRU model consistently outperforms other algorithms, MAPE and RMSE values across all three cryptocurrencies. These findings underscore the reliability and efficiency of the GRU model in cryptocurrency price prediction. Furthermore, the research compares the model's performance with previous studies, reaffirming its effectiveness and potential for practical application in investment strategies as well as decision-making.
In this paper, we take a close look at a problem labeled maximal extractable value (MEV), which arises in a blockchain due to the ability of a block producer to manipulate the order of transactions within a block. Indeed, blockchains such as Ethereum have spent considerable resources addressing this issue and have redesigned the block production process to account for MEV. This paper provides an overview of the MEV problem and tracks how Ethereum has adapted to its presence. A vital aspect of the block building exercise is that it is a variant of the knapsack problem. Consequently, this paper highlights the role of designing auctions to fill a knapsack--or knapsack auctions--in alleviating the MEV problem. Overall, this paper presents a survey of the main issues and an accessible primer for researchers and students wishing to explore the economics of block building and MEV further.
Ethereum smart contracts are highly powerful, immutable, and able to retain massive amounts of tokens. However, smart contracts keep attracting attackers to benefit from smart contract flaws and Ethereum unexpected behavior. Thus, methodologies and tools have been proposed to help implement secure smart contracts and to evaluate the security of smart contracts already deployed. Most related surveys focus on tools without discussing the logic behind them. in addition, they assess the tools based on papers rather than testing the tools and collecting community feedback. Other surveys lack guidelines on how to use tools specific to smart contract functionalities. This paper presents a literature review combined with an experimental report that aims to assist developers in developing secure smarts, with a novel emphasis on the challenges and vulnerabilities introduced by NFT fractionalization by addressing the unique risks of dividing NFT ownership into tradeable units called fractions. It provides a list of frequent vulnerabilities and corresponding mitigation solutions. In addition, it evaluates the community most widely used tools by executing and testing them on sample smart contracts. Finally, a comprehensive guide on implementing secure smart contracts is presented.
Reentrancy, a notorious vulnerability in smart contracts, has led to millions of dollars in financial loss. However, current smart contract vulnerability detection tools suffer from a high false positive rate in identifying contracts with reentrancy vulnerabilities. Moreover, only a small portion of the detected reentrant contracts can actually be exploited by hackers, making these tools less effective in securing the Ethereum ecosystem in practice. In this paper, we propose BlockWatchdog, a tool that focuses on detecting reentrancy vulnerabilities by identifying attacker contracts. These attacker contracts are deployed by hackers to exploit vulnerable contracts automatically. By focusing on attacker contracts, BlockWatchdog effectively detects truly exploitable reentrancy vulnerabilities by identifying reentrant call flow. Additionally, BlockWatchdog is capable of detecting new types of reentrancy vulnerabilities caused by poor designs when using ERC tokens or user-defined interfaces, which cannot be detected by current rule-based tools. We implement BlockWatchdog using cross-contract static dataflow techniques based on attack logic obtained from an empirical study that analyzes attacker contracts from 281 attack incidents. BlockWatchdog is evaluated on 421,889 Ethereum contract bytecodes and identifies 113 attacker contracts that target 159 victim contracts, leading to the theft of Ether and tokens valued at approximately 908.6 million USD. Notably, only 18 of the identified 159 victim contracts can be reported by current reentrancy detection tools.
The real estate industry is crucial sector of the world economy Buying and selling properties usually takes a long time, is complicated, and can be expensive.There's also a risk of mistakes and fraud, which might cause big financial losses and legal problems.This research paper delves into the innovative use of blockchain technology to address the pervasive issue of fraud within the real estate industry.By introducing a comprehensive system where user authentication is conducted through Aadhaar numbers, properties are represented as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), and transactions involve the crucial oversight of designated inspectors, this paper aims to provide a robust framework for fraud prevention.Additionally, it explores how blockchain's inherent properties prevent instances of double selling, thus bolstering the integrity of real estate transactions.The research demonstrates the effective utilization of blockchain technology and Ethereum's smart contracts.The immutability nature of the blockchain ledger and transactions can provide a safe environment for the real estate sector.The project also identified some challenges and opportunities for blockchain adoption in the real estate industry.One of the challenges is the lack of awareness and understanding of blockchain technology.Another challenge is the regulatory environment, which is currently unclear.However, there are many opportunities for blockchain adoption in the real estate industry, such as streamlining the real estate transaction process, reducing fraud, and improving transparency.
Naveen Arali, D. G. Narayan, Altaf Husain M., P. S. Hiremath
Blockchain technology is a decentralized ledger system that finds applications in various domains such as banking, e-governance, and supply chain management. The consensus algorithm plays a crucial role in any blockchain network as it directly impacts the network's performance and security. There have been several proposed consensus mechanisms in the literature, including Proof of Work (PoW), Proof of Stake (PoS), Robust Proof of Stake (RPoS), and Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS). Both Ethereum and Bitcoin utilize the PoW consensus mechanism, where nodes compete to solve puzzles in order to generate blocks, consuming significant processing power. On the other hand, the PoS consensus mechanism selects miners based on the stakes they hold, making it more energy efficient. However, PoS has drawbacks such as vulnerability to coin age accumulation attacks and the potential for partial centralization. In this work, we present a consensus mechanism known as Delegated Proof of Stake with Downgrading Mechanism using Game Theory (DDPoS (GT)). This mechanism employs a two-step game strategy to divide nodes into strong and weak nodes, as well as attack and non-attack nodes. Later, the results of the two games are combined to enhance protocol efficiency and security. Experimental results using a private Ethereum-based network demonstrate that DDPoS (GT) performs better than PoS and DPoS in terms of transaction latency, average block waiting time, and fairness.
Anand Singh Rajawat, S. B. Goyal, Manoj Kumar, Saurabh Kumar
INTRODUCTION: The implementation of robust security protocols is imperative in light of the exponential growth of blockchain-based platforms such as Ethereum. The importance of developing more effective strategies to detect and counter potential attacks is growing in tandem with the sophistication of the methods employed by attackers. In this study, we present a novel approach that leverages quantum computing to identify and predict attack vectors on the Ethereum blockchain. OBJECTIVES: The primary objective of this study is to suggest an innovative methodology for enhancing the security of Ethereum by leveraging quantum computing. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that QRBM and QDN are efficient in identifying and predicting security flaws in blockchain transactions. METHODS: We combined methods from quantum computing with social network research approaches. An enormous dataset containing both genuine Ethereum transactions and a carefully chosen spectrum of malicious activity indicative of popular attack vectors was used to train our model, the QRBM. Thanks to the dataset, the QRBM was able to learn to distinguish between typical and out-of-the-ordinary activities. RESULTS: In comparison to more conventional deep learning models, the QRBM showed substantially better accuracy when it came to identifying transaction behaviours. The model's improved scalability and efficiency were made possible by its quantum nature, which is defined by features like entanglement and superposition. Specifically, the QRBM handled non-informative inputs better and solved problems faster. CONCLUSION: This study paves the way for further investigation into quantum-enhanced cybersecurity measures and highlights the promise of quantum neural networks in strengthening the security of blockchain technology. According to our research, quantum computing has the potential to be an essential tool in creating Ethereum-style blockchain security systems that are more advanced, efficient, and resilient.
The Ethereum Improvement Proposal 3675 (EIP-3675) marks a significant shift, transitioning from a Proof of Work (PoW) to a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. This transition resulted in a staggering 99.95% decrease in energy consumption. However, the transition prompts two critical questions: (1). How does EIP-3675 affect miners' dynamics? and (2). How do users determine priority fees, considering that paying too little may cause delays or non-inclusion, yet paying too much wastes money with little to no benefits? To address the first question, we present a comprehensive empirical study examining EIP-3675's effect on miner dynamics (i.e., miner participation, distribution, and the degree of randomness in miner selection). Our findings reveal that the transition has encouraged broader participation of miners in block append operation, resulting in a larger pool of unique miners ($\approx50\times$ PoW), and the change in miner distribution with the increased number of unique small category miners ($\approx60\times$ PoW). However, there is an unintended consequence: a reduction in the miner selection randomness, which signifies the negative impact of the transition to PoS-Ethereum on network decentralization. Regarding the second question, we employed regression-based machine learning models; the Gradient Boosting Regressor performed best in predicting priority fees, while the K-Neighbours Regressor was worst.
Mallellu Sai Prashanth, V. Uma Maheswari, Rajinikanth Aluvalu, M V V Prasad Kantipudi
INTRODUCTION: Blockchain technology is being investigated as a viable solution due to the industry's growing requirement for accountability and traceability. This study describes a fresh method for tracking down medical products that makes use of a decentralised smart contract network set up on the Ethereum blockchain. In order to enable secure and auditable tracking of health products throughout their lifecycle, the suggested system, named "HealthProductTraceability," makes use of the transparency and immutability of blockchain. OBJECTIVES: The system uses a "Product" struct to hold pertinent data such the product name, batch number, temperature, producer, and distributors. To quickly get product information depending on the batch number, a mapping is used. The use of tools to manufacture items, send them to distributors, and market them is one significant contribution of this research.By demanding validation tests, such as verifying that batch numbers are unique and exist before carrying out certain activities, these functions protect the integrity of the traceability system. METHODS: In order to enable interested parties to track the product's travel and temperature changes, the system additionally emits events for product manufacture, distribution, and temperature adjustments. The suggested system is innovative because it can track the temperature of health items from beginning to end on a decentralised, open platform. RESULTS: By utilising blockchain technology, the system lessens reliance on centralised authorities, fosters stakeholder trust, and minimises the likelihood of fraud, forgery, and tampering in the supply chain for health products. The contract's architecture recognises some of the issues with blockchain technology, including scalability and privacy. By investigating solutions like sidechains, off-chain transactions, and enhancements to consensus methods, scalability issues are solved. CONCLUSION: In summary, the suggested HealthProductTraceability system offers a creative and practical solution to the traceability issues facing the health product sector. The solution provides improved transparency, security, and accountability by utilising blockchain technology, paving the path for a more dependable and trustworthy health product supply chain. To increase the system's usefulness and adoption in real-world circumstances, further research can investigate scalability and privacy issues.
Kripto para birimleri, 2009 yılında ortaya çıkmalarından bu yana oldukça popüler hale gelmiştir. Özellikle Bitcoin'in 3 Ocak 2009'da piyasaya sürülmesinden sonra, diğer kripto para birimlerinin piyasaya çıkışı hız kazanmıştır. Bu popülerlik artışının ardından, kripto para birimlerinin tahmini önemli bir konu haline gelmiştir. Bu çalışmanın ana amacı, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) ve Binance (BNB) kripto para getirilerini öngörmek için geleneksel zaman serisi yöntemlerinden olan ARIMA-GARCH ile birlikte LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory) derin öğrenme yaklaşımını kullanarak elde edilen tahmin performanslarını karşılaştırmaktır. Bu çerçevede, çalışma literatüre yeni bir katkı sunmayı amaçlamaktadır. Her bir kripto para birimi için farklı zaman aralıklarında günlük veriler kullanılmış ve bu veriler %90 eğitim ve %10 test verisi olarak bölünmüştür. Çalışmada, yöntemler RMSE ve MSE değerlendirme kriterleri kullanılarak karşılaştırılmıştır. Genel olarak, BTC serisinde ARIMA-GARCH yöntemi eğitim verisinde daha iyi sonuçlar gösterirken, test verisi için LSTM yöntemi daha etkili olmuştur. BNB serisinde ise hem eğitim hem de test verisi için LSTM yöntemi daha üstün performans sergilemiştir. ETH serisinde ise her iki veri seti için ARIMA-GARCH yöntemi daha iyi sonuçlar ortaya koymaktadır. Bu çalışma, finansal veri tahmininde her iki yöntemin de önemli bir performans sergileyebildiğini vurgulamaktadır.
The project aims to develop a decentralized file-sharing platform that harnesses the power of blockchain technology, Ethereum smart contracts, and InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) to create a secure, censorship-resistant, and user-centric file-sharing ecosystem, eliminating reliance on centralized intermediaries, enhancing data privacy, and reducing the risk of censorship or data loss for a future of decentralized and secure data management.
Agus Tedyyana, Osman Ghazali, Tryo Asnafi, Onno W. Purbo · 6 authors
This study introduces a novel e-voting system utilizing blockchain technology to address the challenges inherent to traditional voting methods. Traditional systems often suffer from inaccuracies, susceptibility to manipulation, and elevated costs. Conversely, while e-voting shows potential, issues related to transparency and security have curbed its full adoption. Our research overcomes these hurdles by integrating a system developed through the Kanban methodology, with the blockchain serving as the central repository for all election data. This approach boosts transparency and security, using public-private key pairs for each transaction, and simplifying blockchain access. Organizers initiate elections and define eligible voters; this data is then securely moved to the Ethereum blockchain. Voters can effortlessly use the system, casting votes and accessing real-time, unalterable results. Various communication protocols ensure system stability, with simulated cyberattacks showcasing its security. After exhaustive testing and refinement, areas for further enhancement have been identified. This innovative system offers unmatched transparency and trust in the voting process, marking a considerable leap for trustworthy elections, especially in small to medium-sized settings.
Gabriele Morello, Mojtaba Eshghie, Sofia Bobadilla, Martin Monperrus
The DISL dataset features a collection of $514,506$ unique Solidity files that have been deployed to Ethereum mainnet. It caters to the need for a large and diverse dataset of real-world smart contracts. DISL serves as a resource for developing machine learning systems and for benchmarking software engineering tools designed for smart contracts. By aggregating every verified smart contract from Etherscan up to January 15, 2024, DISL surpasses existing datasets in size and recency.
Abstract: In recent years, the integration of blockchain technology with healthcare systems has garnered considerable attention due to its potential to enhance security, privacy, and interoperability in managing patient medical records. This paper proposes a novel approach to patient medical record management by leveraging Ethereum blockchain and InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) for storage, within a government-controlled framework. The system ensures secure and immutable storage of patients' medical records, accessible only by verified medical professionals, thus facilitating informed diagnosis and treatment. Additionally, the platform provides mechanisms for patient recourse in case of inaccuracies, as well as potential integration with insurance agencies. Furthermore, the proposed system envisages a future extension to facilitate anonymized data sharing with the scientific community, thereby contributing to advancements in medical research. This paper provides a comprehensive academic description of the proposed approach, discussing its technical architecture, security measures, regulatory framework, and potential impact on healthcare delivery and research.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
Guanyi Wang, Chen Chen, Ziyu Jiang, Gang Li · 6 authors
CryptoKitties, a trendy game on Ethereum that is an open-source public blockchain platform with a smart contract function, brought nonfungible tokens (NFTs) into the public eye in 2017. NFTs are popular because of their nonfungible properties and their unique and irreplaceable nature in the real world. The embryonic form of NFTs can be traced back to a P2P network protocol improved based on Bitcoin in 2012 that can realize decentralized digital asset transactions. NFTs have recently gained much attention and have shown an unprecedented explosive growth trend. Herein, the concept of digital asset NFTs is introduced into the medical and health field to conduct a subversive discussion on biobank operations. By converting biomedical data into NFTs, the collection and circulation of samples can be accelerated, and the transformation of resources can be promoted. In conclusion, the biobank can achieve sustainable development through "decentralization."
Smart contracts are decentralized applications built atop blockchains like Ethereum. Recent research has shown that large language models (LLMs) have potential in auditing smart contracts, but the state-of-the-art indicates that even GPT-4 can achieve only 30% precision (when both decision and justification are correct). This is likely because off-the-shelf LLMs were primarily pre-trained on a general text/code corpus and not fine-tuned on the specific domain of Solidity smart contract auditing. In this paper, we propose iAudit, a general framework that combines fine-tuning and LLM-based agents for intuitive smart contract auditing with justifications. Specifically, iAudit is inspired by the observation that expert human auditors first perceive what could be wrong and then perform a detailed analysis of the code to identify the cause. As such, iAudit employs a two-stage fine-tuning approach: it first tunes a Detector model to make decisions and then tunes a Reasoner model to generate causes of vulnerabilities. However, fine-tuning alone faces challenges in accurately identifying the optimal cause of a vulnerability. Therefore, we introduce two LLM-based agents, the Ranker and Critic, to iteratively select and debate the most suitable cause of vulnerability based on the output of the fine-tuned Reasoner model. To evaluate iAudit, we collected a balanced dataset with 1,734 positive and 1,810 negative samples to fine-tune iAudit. We then compared it with traditional fine-tuned models (CodeBERT, GraphCodeBERT, CodeT5, and UnixCoder) as well as prompt learning-based LLMs (GPT4, GPT-3.5, and CodeLlama-13b/34b). On a dataset of 263 real smart contract vulnerabilities, iAudit achieves an F1 score of 91.21% and an accuracy of 91.11%. The causes generated by iAudit achieved a consistency of about 38% compared to the ground truth causes.
In today's technology-driven world, ensuring robust security is of paramount importance. Blockchain technology has emerged as a pivotal solution, eliminating intermediaries andfortifying security measures. Cryptocurrencies represent the pioneering digital assets successfully managed through blockchain, attracting financial institutions to integrate them intotheir portfolios, fostering widespread adoption and interest among various stakeholders, including the banking sector, government, and individual investors. The potential for cryptocurrencies to evolve into the global currency of the future, supplanting fiat currency, is an intriguing possibility. This research project aims to offer a comprehensive insight into the cryptocurrency market, encompassing its origins, core characteristics, price dynamics, market capitalization, and trading volumes. Additionally, it will delve into critical concepts such as Ethereum, smart contracts, tokens, and consensus algorithms, which are instrumental to the cryptocurrency market's functioning Keywords: Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies, Ethereum, Smart Contracts, Token, ConsensusAlgorithm.
We explore the adoption of graph representation learning (GRL) algorithms to investigate similarities across services offered by Decentralized Finance (DeFi) protocols. Following existing literature, we use Ethereum transaction data to identify the DeFi building blocks. These are sets of protocol-specific smart contracts that are utilized in combination within single transactions and encapsulate the logic to conduct specific financial services such as swapping or lending cryptoassets. We propose a method to categorize these blocks into clusters based on their smart contract attributes and the graph structure of their smart contract calls. We employ GRL to create embedding vectors from building blocks and agglomerative models for clustering them. To evaluate whether they are effectively grouped in clusters of similar functionalities, we associate them with eight financial functionality categories and use this information as the target label. We find that in the best-case scenario purity reaches .888. We use additional information to associate the building blocks with protocol-specific target labels, obtaining comparable purity (.864) but higher V-Measure (.571); we discuss plausible explanations for this difference. In summary, this method helps categorize existing financial products offered by DeFi protocols, and can effectively automatize the detection of similar DeFi services, especially within protocols.
We provide two novel block congestion attacks onEthereum that are applicable even in the presence of the EIP-1559 base fee mechanism, which aimed to make such attacksimpossible or highly costly. Unlike traditional block congestionmethods, our approaches allow the attacker to avoid paying largetransaction fees in case the attack is unsuccessful. Moreover, oursecond attack avoids an explosion in the block base fee and canthus be used for prolonged congestion of an interval of blocks.Finally, we provide real-world examples of contracts currentlydeployed on the Ethereum blockchain which are vulnerableto such attacks. Thus, block congestion is both possible andprofitable, even after EIP-1559.