Blockchain fuelled the innovation of numerous application fields. In particular, Web3 applications benefit the most because blockchain can be used to implement a rewarding system for users that contribute the most, thus increasing the overall social good provided by these platforms. One of the sectors that has benefited most from blockchain technology is the gaming sector through the so-called Play-to-Earn (P2E) model. The P2E Blockchain Video Games allow players to earn rewards in the form of tokens or NFTs, by having an impact on the social good. Unfortunately, bot accounts could exploit these platforms, which defeats the purpose of having a reward system because they invalidate the social good introduced by the rewards. In this paper, we provide an analysis geared towards detecting suspicious behaviour in P2E blockchain-based games by exploiting Gods Unchained as a case study. Using the game’s official APIs, we download 12 months’ worth of players’ activity. Analysing the data, we detect two groups of players with abnormal activity. Additionally, analysing the players’ graph, we find communities made of the best players with similar activity. Lastly, we observe that users with suspicious behaviour belong to these communities.

Detecting Suspicious Player Behavior in Web3 games: A Data-Driven Analysis of Bot Accounts

Barbara Guidi
;
Andrea Michienzi;Laura Ricci
2024-01-01

Abstract

Blockchain fuelled the innovation of numerous application fields. In particular, Web3 applications benefit the most because blockchain can be used to implement a rewarding system for users that contribute the most, thus increasing the overall social good provided by these platforms. One of the sectors that has benefited most from blockchain technology is the gaming sector through the so-called Play-to-Earn (P2E) model. The P2E Blockchain Video Games allow players to earn rewards in the form of tokens or NFTs, by having an impact on the social good. Unfortunately, bot accounts could exploit these platforms, which defeats the purpose of having a reward system because they invalidate the social good introduced by the rewards. In this paper, we provide an analysis geared towards detecting suspicious behaviour in P2E blockchain-based games by exploiting Gods Unchained as a case study. Using the game’s official APIs, we download 12 months’ worth of players’ activity. Analysing the data, we detect two groups of players with abnormal activity. Additionally, analysing the players’ graph, we find communities made of the best players with similar activity. Lastly, we observe that users with suspicious behaviour belong to these communities.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11568/1272768
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