Universal Patterns in the Blockchain: Analysis of EOAs and Smart Contracts in ERC20 Token Networks

Kundan Mukhia, Sr Luwang, Md. Nurujjaman, Tanujit Chakraborty (), Suman Saha and Chittaranjan Hens
Additional contact information
Tanujit Chakraborty: SUAD - Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, SUAD_SAFIR - SUAD - Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi

Working Papers from HAL

Abstract: Scaling laws offer a powerful lens to understand complex transactional behaviors in decentralized systems. This study reveals distinctive statistical signatures in the transactional dynamics of ERC20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain by examining over 44 million token transfers between July 2017 and March 2018 (9-month period). Transactions are categorized into four types: EOA--EOA, EOA--SC, SC-EOA, and SC-SC based on whether the interacting addresses are Externally Owned Accounts (EOAs) or Smart Contracts (SCs), and analyzed across three equal periods (each of 3 months). To identify universal statistical patterns, we investigate the presence of two canonical scaling laws: power law distributions and temporal Taylor's law (TL). EOA-driven transactions exhibit consistent statistical behavior, including a near-linear relationship between trade volume and unique partners with stable power law exponents ($γ\approx 2.3$), and adherence to TL with scaling coefficients ($β\approx 2.3$). In contrast, interactions involving SCs, especially SC-SC, exhibit sublinear scaling, unstable power-law exponents, and significantly fluctuating Taylor coefficients (variation in $β$ to be $Δβ= 0.51$). Moreover, SC-driven activity displays heavier-tailed distributions ($γ< 2$), indicating bursty and algorithm-driven activity. These findings reveal the characteristic differences between human-controlled and automated transaction behaviors in blockchain ecosystems. By uncovering universal scaling behaviors through the integration of complex systems theory and blockchain data analytics, this work provides a principled framework for understanding the underlying mechanisms of decentralized financial systems.

Keywords: Statistical Finance (q-fin.ST); Social and Information Networks (cs.SI); Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph); FOS: Economics and business; FOS: Computer and information sciences; FOS: Physical sciences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-08-06
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-05280162

DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2508.04671

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().