In recent years, the huge growth in the number and variety of blockchains has prompted researchers to investigate the cross-blockchain scenario. In this setting, multiple blockchains coexist, and wallets can exchange data and money from one blockchain to another. The effective and efficient management of a cross-blockchain ecosystem is an open problem. This paper aims to address it by exploiting the potential of Social Network Analysis. This general objective is declined into a set of activities. First, a social network-based model is proposed to represent such a scenario. Then, a multi-dimensional and multi-view framework is presented, which uses such a model to handle a cross-blockchain scenario. Such a framework allows all the results found in the past research on Social Network Analysis to be applied to the cross-blockchain ecosystem. Afterwards, this framework is used to extract insights and knowledge patterns concerning the behavior of several categories of wallets in a cross-blockchain scenario. To verify the goodness of the proposed framework, it is applied on a real dataset derived from Multichain, in order to identify various user categories and their “modus operandi”. Finally, a new centrality measure is proposed, which identifies the most significant wallets in the ecosytem. This measure considers several viewpoints, each of which addresses a specific aspect that may make a wallet more or less central in the cross-blockchain scenario.

Applying Social Network Analysis to Model and Handle a Cross-Blockchain Ecosystem / Bonifazi, G.; Cauteruccio, F.; Corradini, E.; Marchetti, M.; Ursino, D.; Virgili, L.. - In: ELECTRONICS. - ISSN 2079-9292. - 12:5(2023). [10.3390/electronics12051086]

Applying Social Network Analysis to Model and Handle a Cross-Blockchain Ecosystem

G. Bonifazi;F. Cauteruccio;E. Corradini;M. Marchetti;D. Ursino
;
L. Virgili
2023-01-01

Abstract

In recent years, the huge growth in the number and variety of blockchains has prompted researchers to investigate the cross-blockchain scenario. In this setting, multiple blockchains coexist, and wallets can exchange data and money from one blockchain to another. The effective and efficient management of a cross-blockchain ecosystem is an open problem. This paper aims to address it by exploiting the potential of Social Network Analysis. This general objective is declined into a set of activities. First, a social network-based model is proposed to represent such a scenario. Then, a multi-dimensional and multi-view framework is presented, which uses such a model to handle a cross-blockchain scenario. Such a framework allows all the results found in the past research on Social Network Analysis to be applied to the cross-blockchain ecosystem. Afterwards, this framework is used to extract insights and knowledge patterns concerning the behavior of several categories of wallets in a cross-blockchain scenario. To verify the goodness of the proposed framework, it is applied on a real dataset derived from Multichain, in order to identify various user categories and their “modus operandi”. Finally, a new centrality measure is proposed, which identifies the most significant wallets in the ecosytem. This measure considers several viewpoints, each of which addresses a specific aspect that may make a wallet more or less central in the cross-blockchain scenario.
2023
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11566/311707
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