Inheritance software metrics on smart contracts

Ashish Rajendra Sai, Conor Holmes, Jim Buckley, Andre Le Gear

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Blockchain systems have gained substantial traction recently, partlydue to the potential of decentralized immutable mediation of economic activities. Ethereum is a prominent example that has theprovision for executing stateful computing scripts known as SmartContracts. These smart contracts resemble traditional programs, butwith immutability being the core differentiating factor. Given theirimmutability and potential high monetary value, it becomes imperative to develop high-quality smart contracts. Software metricshave traditionally been an essential tool in determining programming quality. Given the similarity between smart contracts (writtenin Solidity for Ethereum) and object-oriented (OO) programming,OO metrics would appear applicable. In this paper, we empiricallyevaluate inheritance-based metrics as applied to smart contracts.We adopt this focus because, traditionally, inheritance has beenlinked to a more complex codebase which we posit is not the casewith Solidity based smart contracts. In this work, we evaluate thehypothesis that, due to the differences in the context of smart contracts and OO programs, it may not be appropriate to use the sameinterpretation of inheritance based metrics for assessment.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2020 IEEE/ACM 28th International Conference on Program Comprehension, ICPC 2020
PublisherIEEE Computer Society
Pages381-385
Number of pages5
ISBN (Electronic)9781450379588
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Jul 2020
Event28th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension, ICPC 2020, collocated with the 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE 2020 - Seoul, Korea, Republic of
Duration: 13 Jul 202015 Jul 2020

Publication series

NameIEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension

Conference

Conference28th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension, ICPC 2020, collocated with the 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE 2020
Country/TerritoryKorea, Republic of
CitySeoul
Period13/07/2015/07/20

Keywords

  • Complexity
  • Inheritance
  • Smart contracts
  • Software metrics

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