Optimizing K-Means Clustering Parameters for Mapping Smart Contract Transaction Characteristics: A Comparative Analysis of Evaluation Metrics in the IOTA Ecosystem
Abstract
References
J. Sedlmeir, H. U. Buhl, G. Fridgen, and R. Keller, “The Energy Consumption of Blockchain Technology: Beyond Myth,†vol. 62, no. 6, pp. 599–608, Dec. 2020, doi: 10.1007/s12599-020-00656-x.
B. K. Mohanta, S. S. Panda, and D. Jena, “An Overview of Smart Contract and Use Cases in Blockchain Technology,†in 2018 9th International Conference on Computing, Communication and Networking Technologies (ICCCNT), IEEE, 2018, pp. 1–4. doi: 10.1109/icccnt.2018.8494045.
Y. Jiang, G. Sun, and T. Feng, “Research on Data Transaction Security Based on Blockchain,†Information, vol. 13, no. 11, p. 532, Nov. 2022, doi: 10.3390/info13110532.
M. D. Patil and M. V. Bhosale, “An Overview of Blockchain Technology: Architecture, Consensus, and Future Trends,†Int. J. Adv. Res. Sci. Commun. Technol., pp. 293–298, 2023, doi: 10.48175/ijarsct-8158.
E. Tan, S. Mahula, and J. Crompvoets, “Blockchain governance in the public sector: A conceptual framework for public management,†Gov. Inf. Q., vol. 39, no. 1, p. 101625, 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.giq.2021.101625.
H. Ding et al., “How Far Should We Go Away from Smart Contract to Smarter Contractor? A Systematic Review,†Blockchain Res. Appl., p. 100402, Oct. 2025, doi: 10.1016/j.bcra.2025.100402.
J. Chen, M. Huang, Z. Lin, P. Zheng, and Z. Zheng, “To healthier Ethereum: a comprehensive and iterative smart contract weakness enumeration,†Blockchain Res. Appl., vol. 6, no. 2, p. 100258, 2025, doi: 10.1016/j.bcra.2024.100258.
S.-Y. Lin, L. Zhang, J. Li, L. Ji, and Y. Sun, “A survey of application research based on blockchain smart contract,†Wirel. Networks, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 635–690, Feb. 2022, doi: 10.1007/s11276-021-02874-x.
C. Laneve and C. Sacerdoti Coen, “Analysis of smart contracts balances,†Blockchain Res. Appl., vol. 2, no. 3, p. 100020, Sep. 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.bcra.2021.100020.
A. Sadu, A. Jindal, G. Lipari, F. Ponci, and A. Monti, “Resilient design of distribution grid automation system against cyber-physical attacks using blockchain and smart contract,†Blockchain Res. Appl., vol. 2, no. 1, p. 100010, 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.bcra.2021.100010.
K. P. Sinaga and M.-S. Yang, “Unsupervised K-Means Clustering Algorithm,†IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 80716–80727, 2020, doi: 10.1109/access.2020.2988796.
A. Kiran, P. Mathivanan, M. Mahdal, K. Sairam, D. Chauhan, and V. Talasila, “Enhancing Data Security in IoT Networks with Blockchain-Based Management and Adaptive Clustering Techniques,†Mathematics, vol. 11, no. 9, p. 2073, Apr. 2023, doi: 10.3390/math11092073.
N. Ahmed, M. A. Ngadi, A. A. Almazroi, and N. A. Alghanmi, “Hybrid Model for Novel Attack Detection Using a Cluster-Based Machine Learning Classification Approach for the Internet of Things (IoT),†Futur. Internet, vol. 17, no. 6, p. 251, 2025, doi: 10.3390/fi17060251.
M. Alshaikhli, S. Al-Maadeed, and M. Saleh, “Enhancing fairness and scalability in IOTA tangle networks: a POMDP-based tip selection algorithm for decentralized systems,†Cluster Comput., vol. 28, no. 14, p. 875, Nov. 2025, doi: 10.1007/s10586-025-05432-8.
IOTA Foundation, “Data Structures.†Accessed: Mar. 18, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://legacy.wiki.iota.org/learn/protocols/iota2.0/core-concepts/data-structures/
F. Guo, “Modeling Improvement and Application of DAG-based Blockchain Networks,†2025, doi: https://doi.org/10.34726/hss.2025.133164.
L. Tassanyi, “Economic Clustering in the Tangle.†Accessed: Mar. 20, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iotaledger/ec.ixi/master/docs/EC.md
B. K. Meister and H. C. W. Price, “Gas fees on the Ethereum blockchain: from foundations to derivative valuations,†2024, Ithaca PP - Ithaca. doi: 10.3389/fbloc.2024.1462666.
I.-C. Lin, C.-C. Chang, and Y.-S. Chang, “Data Security and Preservation Mechanisms for Industrial Control Network Using IOTA,†Symmetry (Basel)., vol. 14, no. 2, p. 237, 2022, doi: 10.3390/sym14020237.
I.-C. Lin, P.-C. Tseng, Y.-S. Chang, and T.-C. Weng, “IOTA Data Preservation Implementation for Industrial Automation and Control Systems,†Processes, vol. 11, no. 7, p. 2160, 2023, doi: 10.3390/pr11072160.
F. Guo, X. Xiao, A. Hecker, and S. Dustdar, “Characterizing IOTA Tangle with Empirical Data,†in GLOBECOM 2020 - 2020 IEEE Global Communications Conference, IEEE, Dec. 2020, pp. 1–6. doi: 10.1109/GLOBECOM42002.2020.9322220.
E. Ferro et al., “Digital assets rights management through smart legal contracts and smart contracts,†Blockchain Res. Appl., vol. 4, no. 3, p. 100142, Sep. 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.bcra.2023.100142.
M. Alishahi, W. Leeuw, and N. Zannone, “BC-FL k-means: A Blockchain-based Framework for Federated Clustering,†in 2023 IEEE 22nd International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications (TrustCom), IEEE, Nov. 2023, pp. 1348–1354. doi: 10.1109/trustcom60117.2023.00184.
Y. Pei et al., “Meta reinforcement learning based dynamic tuning for blockchain systems in diverse network environments,†Blockchain Res. Appl., vol. 6, no. 2, p. 100261, 2025, doi: 10.1016/j.bcra.2024.100261.
C. Cuagdan et al., “Experiences of Blockchain Technology Users,†2023. doi: 10.13140/RG.2.2.36156.41604.
I. Pittaras, N. Fotiou, C. Karapapas, V. A. Siris, and G. C. Polyzos, “Secure smart contract-based digital twins for the Internet of Things,†Blockchain Res. Appl., vol. 5, no. 1, p. 100168, 2024, doi: 10.1016/j.bcra.2023.100168.
S. S. Kushwaha, S. Joshi, D. Singh, M. Kaur, and H.-N. Lee, “Ethereum Smart Contract Analysis Tools: A Systematic Review,†IEEE Access, vol. 10, pp. 57037–57062, 2022, doi: 10.1109/access.2022.3169902.
A. M. Ikotun, A. E. Ezugwu, L. Abualigah, B. Abuhaija, and J. Heming, “K-means clustering algorithms: A comprehensive review, variants analysis, and advances in the era of big data,†Inf. Sci. (Ny)., vol. 622, pp. 178–210, 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.ins.2022.11.139.
G. S. Nadella, K. Meduri, H. Gonaygunta, S. Satish, and S. E. V. S. Pillai, “Blockchain Fraud Detection Using Unsupervised Learning: Anomalous Transaction Patterns Detection Using K-Means Clustering,†in Proceedings of the 2024 Sixteenth International Conference on Contemporary Computing, New York, NY, USA: ACM, Aug. 2024, pp. 407–412. doi: 10.1145/3675888.3676080.
R. Agarwal, S. Barve, and S. K. Shukla, “Detecting malicious accounts in permissionless blockchains using temporal graph properties,†Appl. Netw. Sci., vol. 6, no. 1, p. 9, Dec. 2021, doi: 10.1007/s41109-020-00338-3.
K. Snigdha, P. S. N. Reddy, D. Hema, and S. Gayathri, “BitPredict: End-to-End Context-Aware Detection of Anomalies in Bitcoin Transactions using Stack Model Network,†in 2024 International Conference on Advances in Computing, Communication and Applied Informatics (ACCAI), IEEE, May 2024, pp. 1–6. doi: 10.1109/ACCAI61061.2024.10602116.
C. Yuan and H. Yang, “Research on K-Value Selection Method of K-Means Clustering Algorithm,†J, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 226–235, 2019, doi: 10.3390/j2020016.
D. Stiawan et al., “Ping Flood Attack Pattern Recognition Using a K-Means Algorithm in an Internet of Things (IoT) Network,†IEEE Access, vol. 9, pp. 116475–116484, 2021, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3105517.
M. Mayo, “Revisiting k-Means: 3 Approaches to Make It Work Better,†https://machinelearningmastery.com/. Accessed: Mar. 20, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://machinelearningmastery.com/revisiting-k-means-3-approaches-to-make-it-work-better/
F. Ahmatshin and L. Kazakovtsev, “Mini-batch K-Means++ Clustering Initialization,†2024, pp. 293–307. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-73365-9_20.
A. Rawat, V. Daza, and M. Signorini, “Offline Scaling of IoT Devices in IOTA Blockchain,†Sensors, vol. 22, no. 4, Feb. 2022, doi: 10.3390/s22041411.
D. A. Setiady and H. Leong, “IMPLEMENTATION OF K-MEANS ALGORITHM ELBOW METHOD AND SILHOUETTE COEFFICIENT FOR RAINFALL CLASSIFICATION,†Proxies J. Inform., vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 18–25, 2024, doi: 10.24167/proxies.v4i1.12433.
D. Chicco, A. Campagner, A. Spagnolo, D. Ciucci, and G. Jurman, “The Silhouette coefficient and the Davies-Bouldin index are more informative than Dunn index, Calinski-Harabasz index, Shannon entropy, and Gap statistic for unsupervised clustering internal evaluation of two convex clusters,†PeerJ Comput. Sci., vol. 11, p. e3309, Nov. 2025, doi: 10.7717/peerj-cs.3309.
D. Jollyta, S. Efendi, M. Zarlis, and H. Mawengkang, “Analysis of an optimal cluster approach: a review paper,†J. Phys. Conf. Ser., vol. 2421, no. 1, p. 12015, 2023, doi: 10.1088/1742-6596/2421/1/012015.
F. Ros, R. Riad, and S. Guillaume, “PDBI: A partitioning Davies-Bouldin index for clustering evaluation,†Neurocomputing, vol. 528, pp. 178–199, Apr. 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.neucom.2023.01.043.
S. P. Lima and M. D. Cruz, “A genetic algorithm using Calinski-Harabasz index for automatic clustering problem,†Rev. Bras. Comput. Apl., vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 97–106, Sep. 2020, doi: 10.5335/rbca.v12i3.11117.
S. Chakraborty, D. Paul, and S. Das, “On Consistent Entropy-Regularized k-Means Clustering With Feature Weight Learning: Algorithm and Statistical Analyses,†IEEE Trans. Cybern., vol. 53, no. 8, pp. 4779–4790, Aug. 2023, doi: 10.1109/TCYB.2022.3166975.
J. Z. Huang, M. K. Ng, Hongqiang Rong, and Zichen Li, “Automated variable weighting in k-means type clustering,†IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell., vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 657–668, May 2005, doi: 10.1109/TPAMI.2005.95.
R. C. de Amorim, “A Survey on Feature Weighting Based K-Means Algorithms,†J. Classif., vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 210–242, Jul. 2016, doi: 10.1007/s00357-016-9208-4.
C. Hennig, “Cluster-wise assessment of cluster stability,†Comput. Stat. Data Anal., vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 258–271, Sep. 2007, doi: 10.1016/j.csda.2006.11.025.
C. Hennig, “Dissolution point and isolation robustness: Robustness criteria for general cluster analysis methods,†J. Multivar. Anal., vol. 99, no. 6, pp. 1154–1176, Jul. 2008, doi: 10.1016/j.jmva.2007.07.002.
A. R. Gad, M. Haggag, A. A. Nashat, and T. M. Barakat, “A Distributed Intrusion Detection System using Machine Learning for IoT based on ToN-IoT Dataset,†Int. J. Adv. Comput. Sci. Appl., vol. 13, no. 6, pp. 548–563, 2022, doi: 10.14569/IJACSA.2022.0130667.
Y. Feng, J. Zou, W. Liu, and F. Lv, “Distributed K-Means algorithm based on a Spark optimization sample,†PLoS One, vol. 19, no. 12, p. e0308993, Dec. 2024, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0308993.
C. Kanaracus and A. Mulholland, “IOTA’s Tangle: The Distributed Ledger Built for IoT.†Accessed: Mar. 20, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://www.constellationr.com/insights/news/iotas-tangle-distributed-ledger-built-iot
P. Zhang, “IOTA Bets Big on $35T Trade Sector With ‘World Onchain’ Manifesto.†Accessed: Mar. 20, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://blockchain.news/postamp?id=iota-manifesto-world-onchain-trade-digitization
E. Crypto, “IOTA Deploys Blockchain in UK Kenya Trade Systems.†Accessed: Mar. 19, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://www.edgen.tech/zh/news/crypto/iota-deploys-blockchain-in-uk-kenya-trade-systems
A. Hoffner and S. Liu, “IOTA’s Strategic Shift to Global Trade Infrastructure: Blockchain as the New Backbone of Global Commerce.†Accessed: Mar. 20, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://www.ainvest.com/news/iota-strategic-shift-global-trade-infrastructure-blockchain-backbone-global-commerce-2601/
Jun, “From Platform to Infrastructure: IOTA’s Trade Revolution.†Accessed: Mar. 20, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://4pillars.io/en/articles/from-platform-to-infrastructure-iotas-trade-revolution
I. Foundation, “A Year of Rebirth, Growth, and Global Impact.†[Online]. Available: March 19, 2026
CryptoNewsFlash, “IOTA Enters 2026 Focused on Countries, Trade, and Enterprise-Grade Infrastructure.†Accessed: Mar. 19, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://www.gate.com/tr/news/detail/17394095
W. E. Forum, “Advancing Digital Trade : Insights from the UAE TradeTech Regulatory Sandbox,†2025, [Online]. Available: https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Advancing_Digital_Trade_2025.pdf
P. Sedi Nzakuna, V. Paciello, A. Lay-Ekuakille, A. Kuti Lusala, S. Dello Iacono, and A. Pietrosanto, “From IOTA Tangle 2.0 to Rebased: A Comparative Analysis of Decentralization, Scalability, and Suitability for IoT Applications,†Sensors, vol. 25, no. 11, p. 3408, May 2025, doi: 10.3390/s25113408.