We present our new paper, SoK: Blockchain Unified Data Structure, where we survey existing solutions on blockchain data unification, including theoretical developments and practical open-source or commercial tools. Based on theoretical developments in unifying UTxO and Account-based blockchain models, we propose a new unified abstract data model focused on granular token transfer data.
Title: SoK: Blockchain Unified Data Structure
Authors: Natkamon Tovanich, Madalina I. Sas, Christophe Lebrun, Munthitra Thadthapong, William J Knottenbelt, Arnaud Gaudinat, Marco Mattavelli
Journal: Our paper was accepted to be presented at the IEEE 7th International Conference on Blockchain Computing and Applications (BCCA) and will be included in the IEEE BCCA 2025 proceedings.
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.
To learn more, read our paper here.