MethodologySemantics · 7 min
Detecting Internal Transfers
Internal movement is the main source of inflated volume. This note is the detector we will ship with the semantic layer.
Context
A Uniswap swap produces at least two token.transfers. Counting both as user activity double-counts the same economic event.
Method
Within a transaction, transfers that are explained by a decoded protocol event are flagged internal. Unexplained transfers remain candidates for payments.
Findings
The detector is only as good as the decoder coverage. On protocols we have not decoded, we do not guess — those transfers stay unclassified.
Implications for the data model
noise filtering is Phase 4. Until then, token.transfers is complete and unlabeled, which is preferable to a partial, overconfident filter.