Crypto exchange Coinbase has introduced a new metric called the h-index to improve the accuracy of tracking onchain adoption, addressing distortions caused by airdrop-related activities and Sybil attacks.

Coinbase, a publicly traded U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, is known for its development of Base, a layer-2 solution for Ethereum. The new metric aims to provide a more precise measure of blockchain network adoption by mitigating the effects of airdrop-related activities and Sybil attacks.

In a recent research report, Coinbase highlighted that investments in blockchain infrastructure have resulted in an excess of blockspace. This has made onchain transactions cheaper and has led to an influx of decentralized applications. However, this increase in applications has made it difficult for analysts to track ecosystem adoption accurately.

Traditional network metrics, such as total transactions or daily active addresses, can be skewed by Sybil attacks and airdrop activities. To combat this, Coinbase has proposed the h-index. This new metric balances the depth and breadth of onchain adoption by counting the number of addresses receiving transactions from at least the same number of unique sending addresses.

“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.”

According to Coinbase’s findings, when applying the h-index, Ethereum and Base networks showed the most widespread user activity for the week ending June 6, followed by Arbitrum and Polygon.

While acknowledging the metric’s imperfections, Coinbase believes the h-index can offer new perspectives on comparative chain adoption by mitigating the outsized influences of Sybils and measuring growth more broadly.

However, challenges remain, including differences in blockchain execution environments that can affect transaction formats and data interpretation. Additionally, the impact of exchange or other smart contract wallets could also distort numbers, according to Coinbase.

Sybil attacks are a well-known type of network attack in the crypto industry. In these attacks, a single entity creates multiple fake identities or nodes to gain control over a network or influence its operation. This activity can manipulate network metrics and data by creating numerous false accounts or addresses to inflate transaction volumes or artificially boost user activity, thus distorting the perception of network usage and adoption.

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