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ICSE 2021
Mon 17 May - Sat 5 June 2021
Wed 26 May 2021 14:30 - 14:50 at Blended Sessions Room 4 - 2.3.4. Smart Contracts Chair(s): Oscar Pastor
Thu 27 May 2021 02:30 - 02:50 at Blended Sessions Room 4 - 2.3.4. Smart Contracts

Smart contracts are programs running on a blockchain. They are immutable to change, and hence can not be patched for bugs once deployed. Thus it is critical to ensure they are bug-free and well-designed before deployment. A Contract defect is an error, flaw or fault in a smart contract that causes it to produce an incorrect or unexpected result, or to behave in unintended ways. The detection of contract defects is a method to avoid potential bugs and improve the design of existing code. Since smart contracts contain numerous distinctive features, such as the gas system. decentralized, it is important to find smart contract specified defects. To fill this gap, we collected smart-contract-related posts from Ethereum StackExchange, as well as real-world smart contracts. We manually analyzed these posts and contracts; using them to define 20 kinds of contract defects. We categorized them into indicating potential security, availability, performance, maintainability and reusability problems. To validate if practitioners consider these contract as harmful, we created an online survey and received 138 responses from 32 different countries. Feedback showed these contract defects are harmful and removing them would improve the quality and robustness of smart contracts. We manually identified our defined contract defects in 587 real world smart contract and publicly released our dataset. Finally, we summarized 5 impacts caused by contract defects. These help developers better understand the symptoms of the defects and removal priority.

Wed 26 May

Displayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change

14:30 - 15:30
2.3.4. Smart ContractsJournal-First Papers / Technical Track at Blended Sessions Room 4 +12h
Chair(s): Oscar Pastor Universitat Politecnica de Valencia
14:30
20m
Paper
Defining Smart Contract Defects on EthereumJournal-First
Journal-First Papers
Jiachi Chen Monash University, Xin Xia Huawei Software Engineering Application Technology Lab, David Lo Singapore Management University, John Grundy Monash University, Xiapu Luo The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Ting Chen University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
14:50
20m
Paper
Smart Contract Security: a Practitioners’ PerspectiveArtifact ReusableTechnical TrackArtifact Available
Technical Track
Zhiyuan Wan Zhejiang University, Xin Xia Huawei Software Engineering Application Technology Lab, David Lo Singapore Management University, Jiachi Chen Monash University, Xiapu Luo The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Xiaohu Yang Zhejiang University
Pre-print Media Attached
15:10
20m
Paper
An exploratory study of smart contracts in the Ethereum blockchain platformJournal-First
Journal-First Papers
Gustavo A. Oliva Queen's University, Ahmed E. Hassan School of Computing, Queen's University, Zhen Ming (Jack) Jiang York University
Link to publication DOI Pre-print Media Attached

Thu 27 May

Displayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change

02:30 - 03:30
02:30
20m
Paper
Defining Smart Contract Defects on EthereumJournal-First
Journal-First Papers
Jiachi Chen Monash University, Xin Xia Huawei Software Engineering Application Technology Lab, David Lo Singapore Management University, John Grundy Monash University, Xiapu Luo The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Ting Chen University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
02:50
20m
Paper
Smart Contract Security: a Practitioners’ PerspectiveArtifact ReusableTechnical TrackArtifact Available
Technical Track
Zhiyuan Wan Zhejiang University, Xin Xia Huawei Software Engineering Application Technology Lab, David Lo Singapore Management University, Jiachi Chen Monash University, Xiapu Luo The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Xiaohu Yang Zhejiang University
Pre-print Media Attached
03:10
20m
Paper
An exploratory study of smart contracts in the Ethereum blockchain platformJournal-First
Journal-First Papers
Gustavo A. Oliva Queen's University, Ahmed E. Hassan School of Computing, Queen's University, Zhen Ming (Jack) Jiang York University
Link to publication DOI Pre-print Media Attached