T-EDGE: Temporal WEighted MultiDiGraph Embedding for Ethereum Transaction Network Analysis
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Recently, graph embedding techniques have been widely used in the analysis of various networks, but most of the existing embedding methods omit the temporal and weighted information of edges which may be contributing in financial transaction networks. The open nature of Ethereum, a blockchain-based platform, gives us an unprecedented opportunity for data mining in this area. By taking the realistic rules and features of transaction networks into consideration, we propose to model the Ethereum transaction network as a Temporal Weighted Multidigraph (TWMDG) where each node is a unique Ethereum account and each edge represents a transaction weighted by amount and assigned with timestamp. In a TWMDG, we define the problem of Temporal Weighted Multidigraph Embedding (T-EDGE) by incorporating both temporal and weighted information of the edges, the purpose being to capture more comprehensive properties of dynamic transaction networks. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed embedding method, we conduct experiments of predictive tasks, including temporal link prediction and node classification, on real-world transaction data collected from Ethereum. Experimental results demonstrate that T-EDGE outperforms baseline embedding methods, indicating that time-dependent walks and multiplicity characteristic of edges are informative and essential for time-sensitive transaction networks.
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