A hybrid machine learning approach for improved ponzi scheme detection using advanced feature engineering

Ponzi schemes deceive investors with promises of high returns, relying on funds from new investors to pay earlier ones, creating a misleading appearance of profitability. These schemes are inherently unsustainable, collapsing when new investments wane, leading to significant financial losses. Many researchers have focused on detecting such schemes, but challenges remain due to their evolving nature. This study proposes a novel hybrid machine-learning approach to enhance Ponzi scheme detection. Initially, we train an XGBoost classifier and extract its features. Meanwhile, we tokenize opcode sequences, train a gated recurrent unit (GRU) model on these sequences, and extract features from the GRU. By concatenating the features from the XGBoost classifier and the GRU, we train a final XGBoost model on this combined feature set. Our methodology, leveraging advanced feature engineering and hybrid modeling, achieves a detection accuracy of 96.57%. This approach demonstrates the efficacy of combining XGBoost and GRU models, along with sophisticated feature engineering, in identifying fraudulent activities in Ethereum smart contracts. The results highlight the potential of this hybrid model to offer more robust and accurate Ponzi scheme detection, addressing the limitations of previous methods.