ZAPs: A Reward Attribution Framework for DeFi Ecosystems with Adversarial-Robust Scoring via Parallel Anomaly Ensemble Detection
Stopping bots from gaming crypto rewards while fairly rewarding real users
Most cryptocurrency reward programs can be easily exploited by fake accounts and bot networks, diverting money meant for genuine users. A new system called ZAPs uses a combination of fairness rules and fraud detection to block these attacks while ensuring that whales and protocol farmers can't dominate rewards—in live tests, it cut fraudulent reward capture by more than half while increasing participation from legitimate users by nearly half.
Cryptocurrency platforms spend billions on user incentives, but much of it currently leaks to bots and organized fraud rings instead of reaching real people. ZAPs could redirect tens of millions of dollars annually from attackers to legitimate users, making crypto programs more cost-effective for platforms and fairer for the people they're trying to attract.