scholarly journals SEMANTIC APPROACH TO SMART CONTRACT VERIFICATION

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 021
Author(s):  
Nenad Petrović ◽  
Milorad Tošić
Keyword(s):  
Domain Knowledge ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Formal Semantics ◽  
Source Code ◽  
Limiting Factors ◽  
Smart Contracts ◽  
Semantic Approach ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Smart Contract

Vulnerabilities of smart contract are certainly one of the limiting factors for wider adoption of blockchain technology. Smart contracts written in Solidity language are considered due to common adoption of the Ethereum blockchain platform. Despite its popularity, the semantics of the language is not completely documented and relies on implicit mechanisms not publicly available and as such vulnerable to possible attacks. In addition, creating formal semantics for the higher-level language provides support to verification mechanisms. In this paper, a novel approach to smart contact verification is presented that uses ontologies in order to leverage semantic annotations of the smart contract source code combined with semantic representation of domain-specific aspects. The following aspects of smart contracts, apart from source code are taken into consideration for verification: business logic, domain knowledge, run-time state changes and expert knowledge about vulnerabilities. Main advantages of the proposed verification approach are platform independence and extendability.

scholarly journals SESCon: Secure Ethereum Smart Contracts by Vulnerable Patterns’ Detection

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Amir Ali ◽  
Zain Ul Abideen ◽  
Kalim Ullah
Keyword(s):  
Static Analysis ◽  
Source Code ◽  
Analysis Tool ◽  
Smart Contracts ◽  
Vulnerability Detection ◽  
Taint Analysis ◽  
Analysis Techniques ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Smart Contract ◽  
Static Analysis Tool

Ethereum smart contracts have been gaining popularity toward the automation of so many domains, i.e., FinTech, IoT, and supply chain, which are based on blockchain technology. The most critical domain, e.g., FinTech, has been targeted by so many successful attacks due to its financial worth of billions of dollars. In all attacks, the vulnerability in the source code of smart contracts is being exploited and causes the steal of millions of dollars. To find the vulnerability in the source code of smart contracts written in Solidity language, a state-of-the-art work provides a lot of solutions based on dynamic or static analysis. However, these tools have shown a lot of false positives/negatives against the smart contracts having complex logic. Furthermore, the output of these tools is not reported in a standard way with their actual vulnerability names as per standards defined by the Ethereum community. To solve these problems, we have introduced a static analysis tool, SESCon (secure Ethereum smart contract), applying the taint analysis techniques with XPath queries. Our tool outperforms other analyzers and detected up to 90% of the known vulnerability patterns. SESCon also reports the detected vulnerabilities with their titles, descriptions, and remediations as per defined standards by the Ethereum community. SESCon will serve as a foundation for the standardization of vulnerability detection.

scholarly journals Smart Contract Vulnerability Detection: From Pure Neural Network to Interpretable Graph Feature and Expert Pattern Fusion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenguang Liu ◽  
Peng Qian ◽  
Xiang Wang ◽  
Lei Zhu ◽  
Qinming He ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Deep Learning ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Source Code ◽  
Smart Contracts ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Vulnerability Detection ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
The Past ◽  
Smart Contract ◽  
Local Expert

Smart contracts hold digital coins worth billions of dollars, their security issues have drawn extensive attention in the past years. Towards smart contract vulnerability detection, conventional methods heavily rely on fixed expert rules, leading to low accuracy and poor scalability. Recent deep learning approaches alleviate this issue but fail to encode useful expert knowledge. In this paper, we explore combining deep learning with expert patterns in an explainable fashion. Specifically, we develop automatic tools to extract expert patterns from the source code. We then cast the code into a semantic graph to extract deep graph features. Thereafter, the global graph feature and local expert patterns are fused to cooperate and approach the final prediction, while yielding their interpretable weights. Experiments are conducted on all available smart contracts with source code in two platforms, Ethereum and VNT Chain. Empirically, our system significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods. Our code is released.

A Study of Use Cases for Smart Contracts Using Blockchain Technology

2021 ◽  
pp. 1823-1844
Author(s):  
S R Mani Sekhar ◽  
Siddesh G M ◽  
Swapnil Kalra ◽  
Shaswat Anand
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disaster ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Use Cases ◽  
Use Case ◽  
Smart Contracts ◽  
Digital Identity ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Smart Contract ◽  
Healthcare Finance ◽  
Natural Disaster Management

Blockchain technology is an emerging and rapidly growing technology in the current world scenario. It is a collection of records connected through cryptography. They play a vital role in smart contracts. Smart contracts are present in blockchains which are self-controlled and trustable. It can be integrated across various domains like healthcare, finance, self-sovereign identity, governance, logistics management and home care, etc. The purpose of this article is to analyze the various use cases of smart contracts in different domains and come up with a model which may be used in the future. Subsequently, a detailed description of a smart contract and blockchain is provided. Next, different case-studies related to five different domains is discussed with the help of use case diagrams. Finally, a solution for natural disaster management has been proposed by integrating smart contract, digital identity, policies and blockchain technologies, which can be used effectively for providing relief to victims during times of natural disaster.

scholarly journals Smart Contract: The Concept, Legal Nature, Features of Conclusion and Execution

Legal Concept ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 54-60
Author(s):  
Nizami Safarli
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Smart Contracts ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Smart Contract ◽  
Legal Nature ◽  
Domestic Legislation ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Statutory Regulation

Introduction: the paper is devoted to a new phenomenon in business activity in the conditions of IT development that contribute to the creation of secure contractual relations on the Internet on the basis of transactions executed through smart contracts. The author notes that the need for amendments that could fill the loopholes in the current legislation is obvious. And, first of all, it concerns Blockchain technology – the algorithm that mediates the safe development, conclusion and execution of smart contracts. Blockchain technology is considered in the paper as one of the safest means for concluding and executing smart contracts. The author argues that the study of the concept, legal nature and essence of smart contracts is relevant in the light of spreading their share in the total array of transactions in the world economy in conjunction with the changing domestic legislation governing the relevant sphere, as well as the international integration processes affecting the intensification of foreign economic activity of the Russian Federation. The smart contract concepts formulated by the Russian legislator in the process of upgrading the array of statutory regulation under conditions of economy digitalization are studied and compared. The features of conclusion and protection of the smart contract in the civil legislation of the Russian Federation are analyzed. In order to fully articulate the concept of the smart contract, reflecting its essence, functional purpose and legal nature, it is proposed to create a special law that would focus on the conclusion and implementation of “the smart contract” and the specification of the general norms of the civil code. At the same time, the norms of other special laws would supplement and correct the provisions fixed by this act depending on the sphere of managing and the legal regulation branch. The concept of the smart contract is formulated; its value for economic and contractual activity, and also the advantages and disadvantages of its application are established. The possible classifications of smart contracts are given.

scholarly journals Introduction to Blockchain and Cryptocurrenncy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vidhi Pitroda ◽  
Vraj Shah ◽  
Jinan Fiaidhi
Keyword(s):  
Peer To Peer ◽  
Research Topic ◽  
Smart Contracts ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Smart Contract ◽  
High Security

In recent years blockchain technology has become mainstream research topic because of its decentralized, peer to peer transaction and anonymity properties. There are several applications of blockchain which are secure and easy as compare to the current techniques. One of the applications is a smart contract. Smart contracts are lines of code which are stored on a blockchain and automatically executed when the conditions defined by the it (developer) are met. This smart contract with the addition of blockchain technology can do task fast and with high security. In this paper we have developed a smart contract for a generalized notary application on solidity, Ethereum and the application is tested using the truffle suite. Furthermore, applications and their methodology for notary applications are also mentioned.

scholarly journals Blockchain Smart Contract Meta-modeling

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolás Sánchez-Gómez ◽  
Jesus Torres-Valderrama ◽  
Manuel MEJÍAS RISOTO ◽  
Alejandra GARRIDO
Keyword(s):  
Smart Contracts ◽  
Meta Model ◽  
Business Environments ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Collaborative Processes ◽  
Requirements Specifications ◽  
Smart Contract ◽  
Meta Modeling ◽  
Software Engineers ◽  
Future Work

One of the key benefits of blockchain technology is its ability to keep a permanent, unalterable record of transactions. In business environments, where companies interact with each other without a centralized authority to ensure trust between them, this has led to blockchain platforms and smart contracts being proposed as a means of implementing trustworthy collaborative processes. Software engineers must deal with them to ensure the quality of smart contracts in all phases of the smart contract lifecycle, from requirements specifications to design and deployment. This broad scope and criticality of smart contracts in business environments means that they have to be expressed in a language that is intuitive, easy-to-use, independent of the blockchain platform employed, and oriented towards software quality assurance. In this paper we present a key component: a first outline of a UML-based smart contract meta-model that would allow us to achieve these objectives. This meta-model will be enriched in future work to represent blockchain environments and automated testing.

scholarly journals Survey of Smart Contract Framework and Its Application

Information ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 257
Author(s):  
Edi Surya Negara ◽  
Achmad Nizar Hidayanto ◽  
Ria Andryani ◽  
Rezki Syaputra
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Smart Contracts ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Smart Contract ◽  
Exploratory Approach ◽  
Implementation Studies ◽  
Technological Developments

This article is a literature review on smart contract applications in various domains. The aim is to investigate technological developments and implementation of smart contracts in various domains. For this purpose, the theoretical basis of various papers that have been published in recent years is used as a source of theoretical and implementation studies. Smart contracts are the latest technology that is developing in line with the development of blockchain technology. The literature review that we have carried out explains that smart contracts work automatically, control, or document legally relevant events and actions in accordance with the agreements set forth in the contract agreement. This technology is one of the newest technologies that is expected to provide solutions for trust, security, and transparency in various domains. This literature review was conducted using an exploratory approach. This literature review focuses on reviewing frameworks, methods, and simulations of smart contract implementations in various domains.

scholarly journals Efficient Concurrent Execution of Smart Contracts in Blockchain Sharding

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Yan Wang ◽  
Jixin Li ◽  
Wansheng Liu ◽  
Aiping Tan
Keyword(s):  
Performance Optimization ◽  
Concurrency Control ◽  
Critical Issue ◽  
Smart Contracts ◽  
Throughput Performance ◽  
Concurrent Execution ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Smart Contract ◽  
Execution Strategy ◽  
Feature Information

Throughput performance is a critical issue in blockchain technology, especially in blockchain sharding systems. Although sharding proposals can improve transaction throughput by parallel processing, the essence of each shard is still a small blockchain. Using serial execution of smart contract transactions, performance has not significantly improved, and there is still room for improvement. A smart contract concurrent execution strategy based on concurrency degree optimization is proposed for performance optimization within a single shard. This strategy is applied to each shard. First, it characterizes the conflicting contract feature information by executing a smart contract, analyzing the factors that affect the concurrent execution of the smart contracts, and clustering the contract transaction. Second, in shards with high transaction frequency, considering the execution time, conflict rate, and available resources of contract transactions, finding a serializable schedule of contract transactions by redundant computation and a Variable Shadow Speculative Concurrency Control (SCC-VS) algorithm for smart contract scheduling is proposed. Finally, experimental results show that the strategy increases the concurrency of smart contract execution by 39% on average and the transaction throughput of the whole system by 21% on average.

scholarly journals Smart Contracts to Support the Advancement of Blockchain Technology in the Security Integrity

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (11) ◽  
pp. 31-39
Author(s):  
Sulistiawati Wati
Keyword(s):  
Data Security ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Energy Resources ◽  
Smart Contracts ◽  
Secure Storage ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Storage Media ◽  
Smart Contract ◽  
Problem Solvers ◽  
Effective Source

The development of technology today is used as a benchmark in the advancement of the industrial world where the development of technology has influenced various aspects in the life of today's society. Smart contracts as one form of blockchain technology that resembles a conventional contract can be used to bind agreements between one party and another. One difference between a smart contract and a conventional contract is the smart contract that is stored in the blockchain. With the presence of smart contracts on the blockchain has become one of the most sought-after technologies, because the number of users is high enough for each transaction within the company. In this case various features of smart contracts applications in various worlds, ranging from financial services, life sciences, energy resources and media voting. Smart contracts still pose a lot of challenges that overwhelm the interaction of some Parties, such as users, developers, and organizations built on smart contracts. Smart contracts are essentially a very effective source of problem solvers, where smart contracts on the blockchain make it easy to maintain data security, and save costs and time. In addition, in the absence of third parties strongly minimizes the fraud that is often done by irresponsible parties, this prevents conflicts between parties. Prone to cases of loss of a document is generated because there is no secure storage media. The advent of smart contracts on the blockchain is expected to be a solution to tackle most of the world's commercial and bureaucratic systems.  

scholarly journals Blockchain technology as a regulatory technology: From code is law to law is code

First Monday ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Primavera De Filippi ◽  
Samer Hassan
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technology ◽  
Computer Code ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Smart Contracts ◽  
Legal Rules ◽  
Legal Code ◽  
Traditional Notion ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Smart Contract ◽  
Internet Users

“Code is law” refers to the idea that, with the advent of digital technology, code has progressively established itself as the predominant way to regulate the behavior of Internet users. Yet, while computer code can enforce rules more efficiently than legal code, it also comes with a series of limitations, mostly because it is difficult to transpose the ambiguity and flexibility of legal rules into a formalized language which can be interpreted by a machine. With the advent of blockchain technology and associated smart contracts, code is assuming an even stronger role in regulating people’s interactions over the Internet, as many contractual transactions get transposed into smart contract code. In this paper, we describe the shift from the traditional notion of “code is law” (i.e., code having the effect of law) to the new conception of “law is code” (i.e., law being defined as code).

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