Why Is My Transaction Risky? Understanding Smart Contract Semantics and Interactions in the NFT Ecosystem
Yujing Chen, Xuanming Liu, Zhiyuan Wan, Zuobin Wang, David Lo, Difan Xie, Xiaohu Yang

TL;DR
This study analyzes nearly 100 million Ethereum transactions to understand smart contract semantics and interactions in the NFT ecosystem, revealing patterns linked to transaction risks and scam tokens.
Contribution
It provides the first large-scale empirical analysis of smart contract semantics and interactions in NFTs, highlighting risk factors and common patterns associated with scams.
Findings
Limited semantic diversity among contracts, dominated by proxy, token, and DeFi types.
Scam tokens show bytecode convergence, unlike legitimate tokens.
Certain interaction patterns are linked to risky transactions.
Abstract
The NFT ecosystem represents an interconnected, decentralized environment that encompasses the creation, distribution, and trading of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), where key actors, such as marketplaces, sellers, and buyers, utilize smart contracts to facilitate secure, transparent, and trustless transactions. Scam tokens are deliberately created to mislead users and facilitate financial exploitation, posing significant risks in the NFT ecosystem. Prior work has explored the NFT ecosystem from various perspectives, including security challenges, actor behaviors, and risks from scams and wash trading, leaving a gap in understanding the semantics and interactions of smart contracts during transactions, and how the risks associated with scam tokens manifest in relation to the semantics and interactions of contracts. To bridge this gap, we conducted a large-scale empirical study on smart…
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Taxonomy
TopicsBlockchain Technology Applications and Security · Digital Rights Management and Security · Cryptography and Data Security
