GethReplayer: a smart contract testing method based on transaction replay
International Journal of Web Information Systems
ISSN: 1744-0084
Article publication date: 5 April 2024
Issue publication date: 19 July 2024
Abstract
Purpose
Smart contracts are written in high-level programming languages, compiled into Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) bytecode, deployed onto blockchain systems and called with the corresponding address by transactions. The deployed smart contracts are immutable, even if there are bugs or vulnerabilities. Therefore, it is critical to verify smart contracts before deployment. This paper aims to help developers effectively and efficiently locate potential defects in smart contracts.
Design/methodology/approach
GethReplayer, a smart contract testing method based on transaction replay, is proposed. It constructs a parallel transaction execution environment with two virtual machines to compare the execution results. It uses the real existing transaction data on Ethereum and the source code of the tested smart contacts as inputs, conditionally substitutes the bytecode of the tested smart contract input into the testing EVM, and then monitors the environmental information to check the correctness of the contract.
Findings
Experiments verified that the proposed method is effective in smart contract testing. Virtual environmental information has a significant effect on the success of transaction replay, which is the basis for the performance of the method. The efficiency of error locating was approximately 14 times faster with the proposed method than without. In addition, the proposed method supports gas consumption analysis.
Originality/value
This paper addresses the difficulty that developers encounter in testing smart contracts before deployment and focuses on helping develop smart contracts with as few defects as possible. GethReplayer is expected to be an alternative solution for smart contract testing and provide inspiration for further research.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work is partially supported by the Scientific Research Project of Guangzhou Education Bureau (No. 202032818), the Guangzhou Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (No. 202102080394), the Academic Innovation Team Project of Guangzhou Panyu Polytechnic (No. 2020CXTD004) and Guangdong Young Innovative Talent Project of General College and University (No. 2021WQNCX274).
Citation
Shi, X., Wang, Z., Zhong, R., Ma, L., Chen, X. and Yang, P. (2024), "GethReplayer: a smart contract testing method based on transaction replay", International Journal of Web Information Systems, Vol. 20 No. 4, pp. 358-373. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJWIS-08-2023-0138
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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