Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36010712›Full record

ArticleEntropy (Basel, Switzerland)2022

The Structural Role of Smart Contracts and Exchanges in the Centralisation of Ethereum-Based Cryptoassets.

Francesco Maria De Collibus, Matija Piškorec, Alberto Partida, Claudio J Tessone

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Entropy (Basel, Switzerland), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Francesco Maria De CollibusBlockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies Group, Universität Zürich, Andreasstrasse 15, CH-8050 Zürich, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0002-9776-4546
Matija PiškorecBlockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies Group, Universität Zürich, Andreasstrasse 15, CH-8050 Zürich, Switzerland.
Alberto PartidaInternational Doctoral School, Móstoles Campus, Rey Juan Carlos University, 28933 Madrid, Spain.ORCID 0000-0001-5586-0321
Claudio J TessoneBlockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies Group, Universität Zürich, Andreasstrasse 15, CH-8050 Zürich, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0001-7733-6221

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In this paper, we use the methods of networks science to analyse the transaction networks of tokens running on the Ethereum blockchain. We start with a deep dive on four of them: Ampleforth (AMP), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Dai (DAI) and Uniswap (UNI). We study two types of blockchain addresses, smart contracts (SC), which run code, and externally owned accounts (EOA), run by human users, or off-chain code, with the corresponding private keys. We use preferential attachment and network dismantling strategies to evaluate their importance for the network structure. Subsequently, we expand our view to all ERC-20 tokens issued on the Ethereum network. We first study multilayered networks composed of Ether (ETH) and individual tokens using a dismantling approach to assess how the deconstruction starting from one network affects the other. Finally, we analyse the Ether network and Ethereum-based token networks to find similarities between sets of high-degree nodes. For this purpose, we use both the traditional Jaccard Index and a new metric that we introduce, the Ordered Jaccard Index (OJI), which considers the order of the elements in the two sets that are compared. Our findings suggest that smart contracts and exchange-related addresses play a structural role in transaction networks both in DeFi and Ethereum. The presence in the network of nodes associated to addresses of smart contracts and exchanges is positively correlated with the success of the token network measured in terms of network size and market capitalisation. These nodes play a fundamental role in the centralisation of the supposedly decentralised finance (DeFi) ecosystem: without them, their networks would quickly collapse.

Indexed as

blockchaindecentralised financeEthereumnetwork dismantlingnetwork sciencepreferential attachment

Identifiers

PMID36010712
PMCPMC9407335

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.