Ethna: Analyzing the Underlying Peer-to-Peer Network of the Ethereum Blockchain
Ethna: Analyzing the Underlying Peer-to-Peer Network of the Ethereum Blockchain
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Ethna：分析以太坊区块链的底层点对点网络
DOI：
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发表时间：
2020
期刊：
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通讯作者：
Shengli Zhang
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Taotao Wang;Chonghe Zhao;Qing Yang;Shengli Zhang
作为区块链系统的通信基础设施，底层的点对点（P2P）网络对比特币和以太坊等上层区块链的效率和安全性有着至关重要的影响。然而，目前的以太坊区块链探索者（例如，Etherscan）专注于跟踪块和交易记录，但忽略了底层P2P网络的特征。这项工作介绍了以太坊网络分析器（Ethna），这是一种探测和分析以太坊区块链的P2P网络的工具。与采用非结构化P2P网络的比特币不同，以太坊依赖于Kademlia DHT来管理其P2P网络。因此，现有的针对类似比特币的P2P网络的分析方法不适用于以太坊。在Ethna中，我们实现了一种新的方法，可以准确地测量以太坊节点的度;此外，我们设计了一种算法，可以导出以太坊网络中消息传播的延迟度量。我们在以太坊主网上运行Ethna，并进行了大量的实验来分析其P2P网络的拓扑特征。我们的分析表明，以太坊P2P网络符合小世界特性，节点的度遵循幂律分布，这是无标度网络的特征。
As the communication infrastructure of the blockchain system, the underlying peer-to-peer (P2P) network has a crucial impact on the efficiency and security of the upper-layer blockchain such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. However, current Ethereum blockchain explorers (e.g., the Etherscan) focus on the tracking of block and transaction records but omit the characterization of the underlying P2P network. This work presents the Ethereum Network Analyzer (Ethna), a tool that probes and analyzes the P2P network of the Ethereum blockchain. Unlike Bitcoin that adopts an unstructured P2P network, Ethereum relies on the Kademlia DHT to manage its P2P network. Therefore, the existing analyzing methods proposed for Bitcoin-like P2P networks are not applicable to Ethereum. In Ethna, we implement a novel method that can accurately measures the degrees of Ethereum nodes; moreover, we design an algorithm that derives the latency metrics of the message dissemination in the Ethereum network. We run Ethna on the Ethereum Mainnet and conduct extensive experiments to analyze the topological features of its P2P network. Our analysis shows that the Ethereum P2P network conforms to the small-world property, and the degrees of nodes follow a power-law distribution that characterizes scale-free networks.