| Author: | Wang, Yongxin |
| Title: | Exploring ethereum nodes and transactions |
| Degree: | M.Sc. |
| Year: | 2019 |
| Subject: | Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations Application software -- Development Computer networks -- Management |
| Department: | Department of Computing |
| Pages: | ix, 88 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Ethereum, a cryptocurrency whose trading volume reached around 1.3 million dollars in latest 24 hours, has 4500% investment return. Except for its economic aspect, we know very limited about it compared to Bitcoin. This dissertation will show you how the Ethereum network works and how the information propagates in its network. This dissertation researches different kinds of transaction in the Ethereum and overall architecture of its peer-to-peer(P2P) network, which have not been systematically studied before. There are three main protocols and some sub-protocols that make up the Ethereum network. The process includes the node discovery protocol, the RLPs transport protocol and the Devp2p application protocol. We survey how a peer uses node discover protocol, a UDP-based kademlia-like protocol, to discovery remote peers, connect them and propagate information based on source code and practice. The peer-to-peer connection there needs to two kinds of handshakes in order, namely, an encryption handshake and a protocols handshake. Then, peers would like to make sure both are with the same settings and broadcast information using some sub-protocols controlled by the Devp2p application protocol. Like other network connections, during their information propagation, peers will continue to send packets with specific flags in order to confirm that the other party is online. The most importance in this thesis is that we explore the nodes information in the Ethereum network. we collect specific data of Ethereum nodes during June to October 2018. We connect to those nodes, process data and do some statistics and analysis in different aspects. For instance, we compare the amount of nodes with total difficulty of mining in the same time. We count clients and their version using by nodes. In the meantime, we cluster their geographic information and make it visible easier by IP information. It has verified that the decentralization in blockchain-based networks is not as complete as people hope. We survey that some nodes binding many accounts are honeypot system in order to monitor attackers' behaviors. According to balances and transaction records from public databases, we distinguish internal transactions from external transactions in an account. In the meantime, according to the block height they have synchronized, we connect to nodes, send request constantly and capture packet by wireshark. Comparing the time difference and the block difference, we calculate the average propagation time. Besides, we compare our result with that of Bitcoin to find the difference settings and process between the Ethereum network and the Bitcoin network. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 991022268444003411.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 4.89 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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