SoK: Unified Blockchain Data Structure

Over the last 15 years, blockchain technologies have evolved into a heterogeneous ecosystem with numerous practical applications. The diversity of blockchain data models ranging from UTxO-based to account-based systems and evolving towards smart contract platforms - has led to fragmentation in how blockchain data is stored, accessed, and analysed. This heterogeneity hinders interoperability, complicates cross-chain analytics, and limits reproducibility in blockchain research. In this paper, we present a comprehensive study of blockchain data unification, covering a wide range of academic and commercial approaches. We examine their underlying data structures and identify key limitations in existing solutions. Building on these insights, we propose a unified data model that abstracts and flattens token transfer data while capturing the semantics of both UTxO and account-based paradigms. We conclude by outlining future research directions to further validate and extend this model across diverse blockchain ecosystems.

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Publication Details

Published
2025-10-14
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1109/bcca66705.2025.11229695
Primary Topic
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

SoK: Unified Blockchain Data Structure

Marco Mattavelli, Christophe Lebrun, William J. Knottenbelt, Arnaud Gaudinat et al.
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
article

SoK: Unified Blockchain Data Structure

Marco Mattavelli, Christophe Lebrun, William J. Knottenbelt, Arnaud Gaudinat, Madalina I Sas, Natkamon Tovanich, Munthitra Thadthapong
article en

Abstract

Over the last 15 years, blockchain technologies have evolved into a heterogeneous ecosystem with numerous practical applications. The diversity of blockchain data models ranging from UTxO-based to account-based systems and evolving towards smart contract platforms - has led to fragmentation in how blockchain data is stored, accessed, and analysed. This heterogeneity hinders interoperability, complicates cross-chain analytics, and limits reproducibility in blockchain research. In this paper, we present a comprehensive study of blockchain data unification, covering a wide range of academic and commercial approaches. We examine their underlying data structures and identify key limitations in existing solutions. Building on these insights, we propose a unified data model that abstracts and flattens token transfer data while capturing the semantics of both UTxO and account-based paradigms. We conclude by outlining future research directions to further validate and extend this model across diverse blockchain ecosystems.

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), École Polytechnique (FR), HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (CH), Asian Institute of Technology (TH), HES-SO Genève (CH), Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique (FR), Imperial College London (GB), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH)
National Science Foundation, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, CHIST-ERA
Openalex Percentile: Top 61%
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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