A new metric called the h-index has been introduced by crypto exchange Coinbase to counter biases in tracking on-chain adoption brought about by airdrop-related activity.
The publicly traded U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, best known for creating Base, a layer-2 Ethereum solution, has unveiled a new metric that it claims would give a more precise indication of the adoption of blockchain technology.
This new statistic aims to lessen distortions brought about by Sybil assaults and airdrop-related operations. Coinbase stated in a research paper released on Friday that the block space surplus resulting from blockchain infrastructure investments had lowered the cost of on-chain transactions and stimulated the development of new decentralized apps on networks.
However, when additional apps debut, researchers may find it increasingly challenging to monitor ecosystem acceptance due to this modification. Sybil attacks and airdropping might distort conventional network metrics, like total transactions or daily active addresses, according to Coinbase.
Coinbase suggests the h-index, a novel metric that balances the breadth and depth of on-chain use, as a solution to this problem. The number of addresses that receive transactions from at least that same number of distinct sending addresses is counted by the h-index. Coinbase:
“In other words, an h-index of 100 means that 100 different receiving addresses had received transactions from at least 100 unique sending addresses over a given time frame.”
When the h-index was applied, Ethereum and Base networks showed the most extensive user activity for the week ending June 6, followed by Arbitrum and Polygon, according to Coinbase’s data.
While acknowledging the metric’s imperfections, Coinbase believes the h-index can shed “new perspectives on comparative chain adoption by mitigating the outsized influences of Sybils and measuring growth more broadly.”
The cryptocurrency exchange pointed out that there are still issues that need to be resolved, such as variations in blockchain execution environments that can have an impact on data interpretation and transaction forms.
Furthermore, Coinbase acknowledges that the influence of exchanges or other smart contract wallets “may also distort numbers.” In the cryptocurrency world, sybil assaults are a well-known kind of network attack in which a single party fabricates numerous fictitious identities or nodes to take over a network or affect its functioning.
By creating many fictitious accounts or addresses, this behavior can alter network metrics and data, artificially inflating transaction volumes or user activity and distorting the perception of network usage and adoption.
