(Publisher of Peer Reviewed Open Access Journals)

International Journal of Advanced Technology and Engineering Exploration (IJATEE)

ISSN (Print):2394-5443    ISSN (Online):2394-7454
Volume-10 Issue-103 June-2023
Full-Text PDF
Paper Title : An interpretable ensemble model framework for real-time anomaly detection and prediction of Ethereum blockchain transactions
Author Name : Sabri Hisham, Mokhairi Makhtar and Azwa Abdul Aziz
Abstract :

The blockchain ecosystem is often referred to as a technology that ensures security. However, there have been concerns in the real world regarding the security of blockchain applications, like what happens with conventional database systems. The anonymous design of blockchain provides cyber-attackers with opportunities to commit crimes, resulting in an increase in scams, phishing, code manipulation of smart contracts, Ponzi schemes, and other fraudulent activities. Consequently, many individuals and national economies worldwide have suffered significant losses. Detecting fraudulent behavior in blockchain transactions manually is infeasible due to the enormous amount of data involved. Therefore, the optimal method for identifying abnormalities within the blockchain network is to combine a blockchain platform with a machine learning approach. This study employs filter method techniques such as mutual information (MI), analysis of variance (ANOVA), and recursive feature elimination (RFE) to identify the ideal set of features based on the maximum accuracy value, considering the feature dimension (k value). The study screens and ranks the top 10 feature sets using the feature importance random forest (RF) classifier, based on the dataset produced by the best filter approach (yielding higher accuracy). Subsequently, an ensemble methodology is used to create the final model, utilizing the final dataset consisting of 10 features. The purpose of this approach is to enhance the level of anomaly detection in the blockchain network. To determine the effectiveness of the proposed model, experiments are conducted, comparing it against individual classifiers such as extreme gradient boosting (XGB), decision tree (DT), logistic regression (LR), random forest (RF), and k-nearest neighbor (KNN). The study's findings reveal that the ensemble voting approach achieves a 96.78% accuracy rate, surpassing the accuracy of the individual classifier models that utilize optimal features. Additionally, the study's findings suggest that the selection of features and their quantity significantly impact the output of the model.

Keywords : Ethereum, Blockchain, Features extraction, Ensemble method, Anomaly detection.
Cite this article : Hisham S, Makhtar M, Aziz AA. An interpretable ensemble model framework for real-time anomaly detection and prediction of Ethereum blockchain transactions. International Journal of Advanced Technology and Engineering Exploration. 2023; 10(103):676-695. DOI:10.19101/IJATEE.2022.10100578.
References :
[1]Jatoth C, Jain R, Fiore U, Chatharasupalli S. Improved classification of blockchain transactions using feature engineering and ensemble learning. Future Internet. 2021; 14(1):1-12.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[2]Hou H. The application of blockchain technology in E-government in China. In 26th international conference on computer communication and networks 2017 (pp. 1-4). IEEE.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[3]Roehrs A, Da CCA, Da R. OmniPHR: a distributed architecture model to integrate personal health records. Journal of Biomedical Informatics. 2017; 71:70-81.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[4]Sidhu J. Syscoin: a peer-to-peer electronic cash system with blockchain-based services for e-business. In 26th international conference on computer communication and networks 2017 (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[5]Hakak S, Khan WZ, Gilkar GA, Imran M, Guizani N. Securing smart cities through blockchain technology: architecture, requirements, and challenges. IEEE Network. 2020; 34(1):8-14.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[6]Thompson S. The preservation of digital signatures on the blockchain. See Also. 2017; 31(3):1-17.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[7]Togawa Y. Nomure research institute: survey on blockchain technologies and related services. Information Economy Division Commerce and Information Policy Bureau. 2016.
[Google Scholar]
[8]Hisham S, Makhtar M, Aziz AA. A comprehensive review of significant learning for anomalous transaction detection using a machine learning method in a decentralized blockchain network. International Journal of Advanced Technology and Engineering Exploration. 2022; 9(95):1366-96.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[9]Kanan T, Obaidat AT, Al-lahham M. SmartCert blockchain imperative for educational certificates. In Jordan international joint conference on electrical engineering and information technology 2019 (pp. 629-33). IEEE.
[Google Scholar]
[10]Moosavi J, Naeni LM, Fathollahi-fard AM, Fiore U. Blockchain in supply chain management: a review, bibliometric, and network analysis. Environmental Science and Pollution Research. 2021:1-5.
[Google Scholar]
[11]Zheng Z, Xie S, Dai HN, Chen X, Wang H. Blockchain challenges and opportunities: a survey. International Journal of Web and Grid Services. 2018; 14(4):352-75.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[12]Bahga A, Madisetti VK. Blockchain platform for industrial internet of things. Journal of Software Engineering and Applications. 2016; 9(10):533-46.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[13]Eduardo A, Sousa J, Oliveira VC, Almeida VJ, Borges VA, Bernardino HS, et al. Fighting under-price DoS attack in ethereum with machine learning techniques. ACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Review. 2021; 48(4):24-7.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[14]Chen W, Zheng Z, Cui J, Ngai E, Zheng P, Zhou Y. Detecting Ponzi schemes on Ethereum: towards healthier blockchain technology. In proceedings of the world wide web conference 2018 (pp. 1409-18).
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[15]Meiklejohn S, Pomarole M, Jordan G, Levchenko K, Mccoy D, Voelker GM, et al. A fistful of bitcoins: characterizing payments among men with no names. In proceedings of the conference on internet measurement conference 2013 (pp. 127-40). ACM.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[16]Khonji M, Iraqi Y, Jones A. Phishing detection: a literature survey. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials. 2013; 15(4):2091-121.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[17]Agarwal R, Barve S, Shukla SK. Detecting malicious accounts in permissionless blockchains using temporal graph properties. Applied Network Science. 2021; 6(1):1-30.
[Google Scholar]
[18]Wen H, Fang J, Wu J, Zheng Z. Transaction-based hidden strategies against general phishing detection framework on ethereum. In international symposium on circuits and systems 2021 (pp. 1-5). IEEE.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[19]Jung E, Le TM, Gehani A, Ge Y. Data mining-based ethereum fraud detection. In 2019 international conference on blockchain (Blockchain) 2019 (pp. 266-73). IEEE.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[20]Preuveneers D, Rimmer V, Tsingenopoulos I, Spooren J, Joosen W, Ilie-zudor E. Chained anomaly detection models for federated learning: an intrusion detection case study. Applied Sciences. 2018; 8(12):1-21.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[21]Pham T, Lee S. Anomaly detection in bitcoin network using unsupervised learning methods. arXiv preprint arXiv:1611.03941. 2016; 1611:03941.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[22]Yan Z, Susilo W, Bertino E, Zhang J, Yang LT. AI-driven data security and privacy. Journal of Network and Computer Applications. 2020; 172:102842.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[23]Hisham S, Makhtar M, Aziz AA. Combining multiple classifiers using ensemble method for anomaly detection in blockchain networks: a comprehensive review. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications. 2022; 13(8):404-22.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[24]Aljofey A, Rasool A, Jiang Q, Qu Q. A feature-based robust method for abnormal contracts detection in ethereum blockchain. Electronics. 2022; 11(18):1-24.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[25]Farrugia S, Ellul J, Azzopardi G. Detection of illicit accounts over the Ethereum blockchain. Expert Systems with Applications. 2020; 150:113318.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[26]Sallam A, Rassem T, Abdu H, Abdulkareem H, Saif N, Abdullah S. Fraudulent account detection in the Ethereum’s network using various machine learning techniques. International Journal of Software Engineering and Computer Systems. 2022; 8(2):43-50.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[27]Ibrahim RF, Elian AM, Ababneh M. Illicit account detection in the Ethereum blockchain using machine learning. In international conference on information technology 2021 (pp. 488-93). IEEE.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[28]Baba NM, Makhtar M, Fadzli SA, Awang MK. Current issues in ensemble methods and its applications. Journal of Theoretical & Applied Information Technology. 2015; 81(2):266-76.
[Google Scholar]
[29]Bulusu S, Kailkhura B, Li B, Varshney PK, Song D. Anomalous example detection in deep learning: a survey. IEEE Access. 2020; 8:132330-47.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[30]Zhang YL, Li L, Zhou J, Li X, Zhou ZH. Anomaly detection with partially observed anomalies. In companion proceedings of the web conference 2018 (pp. 639-46). ACM.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[31]Signorini M, Pontecorvi M, Kanoun W, Di PR. BAD: a blockchain anomaly detection solution. IEEE Access. 2020; 8:173481-90.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[32]Mirsky Y, Golomb T, Elovici Y. Lightweight collaborative anomaly detection for the IoT using blockchain. Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing. 2020; 145:75-97.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[33]Chen W, Zheng Z, Ngai EC, Zheng P, Zhou Y. Exploiting blockchain data to detect smart ponzi schemes on ethereum. IEEE Access. 2019; 7:37575-86.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[34]Hu T, Liu X, Chen T, Zhang X, Huang X, Niu W, et al. Transaction-based classification and detection approach for Ethereum smart contract. Information Processing & Management. 2021; 58(2):102462.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[35]Sosu RN, Chen J, Brown-acquaye W, Owusu E, Boahen E. A vulnerability detection approach for automated smart contract using enhanced machine learning techniques. Europe PMC. 2022; 1-10.
[Google Scholar]
[36]Han D, Li Q, Zhang L, Xu T. A smart contract vulnerability detection model based on syntactic and semantic fusion learning. Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing. 2023; 2023:1-12.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[37]Ashizawa N, Yanai N, Cruz JP, Okamura S. Eth2Vec: learning contract-wide code representations for vulnerability detection on Ethereum smart contracts. In proceedings of the 3rd international symposium on blockchain and secure critical infrastructure 2021 (pp. 47-59). ACM.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[38]Huang J, Zhou K, Xiong A, Li D. Smart contract vulnerability detection model based on multi-task learning. Sensors. 2022; 22(5):1-24.
[Google Scholar]
[39]Huang Y, Kong Q, Jia N, Chen X, Zheng Z. Recommending differentiated code to support smart contract update. In 27th international conference on program comprehension 2019 (pp. 260-70). IEEE.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[40]Wu J, Yuan Q, Lin D, You W, Chen W, Chen C, et al. Who are the phishers? phishing scam detection on ethereum via network embedding. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems. 2020; 52(2):1156-66.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[41]Jin C, Jin J, Zhou J, Wu J, Xuan Q. Heterogeneous feature augmentation for ponzi detection in ethereum. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs. 2022; 69(9):3919-23.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[42]Nerurkar P, Busnel Y, Ludinard R, Shah K, Bhirud S, Patel D. Detecting illicit entities in bitcoin using supervised learning of ensemble decision trees. In proceedings of the 10th international conference on information communication and management 2020 (pp. 25-30). ACM.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[43]Yang X, Chen Y, Qian X, Li T, Lv X. BCEAD: a blockchain-empowered ensemble anomaly detection for wireless sensor network via isolation forest. Security and Communication Networks. 2021; 2021:1-10.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[44]Nerurkar P, Bhirud S, Patel D, Ludinard R, Busnel Y, Kumari S. Supervised learning model for identifying illegal activities in bitcoin. Applied Intelligence. 2021; 51:3824-43.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[45]Bhowmik M, Chandana TS, Rudra B. Comparative study of machine learning algorithms for fraud detection in blockchain. In 5th international conference on computing methodologies and communication 2021 (pp. 539-41). IEEE.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[46]Poursafaei F, Hamad GB, Zilic Z. Detecting malicious ethereum entities via application of machine learning classification. In 2nd conference on blockchain research & applications for innovative networks and services 2020 (pp. 120-7). IEEE.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[47]Fan S, Fu S, Xu H, Zhu C. Expose your mask: smart ponzi schemes detection on blockchain. In international joint conference on neural networks 2020 (pp. 1-7). IEEE.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[48]Yuan Q, Huang B, Zhang J, Wu J, Zhang H, Zhang X. Detecting phishing scams on ethereum based on transaction records. In international symposium on circuits and systems 2020 (pp. 1-5). IEEE.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[49]Chen J, Xia X, Lo D, Grundy J, Luo X, Chen T. Defectchecker: automated smart contract defect detection by analyzing EVM bytecode. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering. 2021; 48(7):2189-207.
[Crossref] [Google Scholar]
[50]Buterin V. A next-generation smart contract and decentralized application platform. Ethereum White Paper. 2014:1-36.
[Google Scholar]