Improving Smart Contracts Management and Designs for Blockchain Systems

Abstract

Blockchain technology has a secure-by-design ledger in which a chain of blocks storing network transactions is permanently stored in the network nodes. It has significantly impacted domain-specific tracking and authenticity fields such as supply chain applications, tracking and tracing systems, and certifications. Specifically, blockchain and smart contracts can be applied in several crucial applications, such as smart cities, vaccination certificates, and code verification, by which the blockchain increases individuals’ trust in the application processes, as has been proven in academia. Most blockchain platforms, such as Ethereum and Hyperledger, utilize smart contracts to interact with their systems. Smart contracts are programs defined as sets of digital agreements between smart contracts owner and other involved parties. Therefore, finding smart contract source codes on GitHub or Etherscan can be helpful for software engineers as it helps developers reuse source code, build prototypes, identify alternative implementations, and discover code theft and plagiarism. Furthermore, smart contracts' re-usability can be integrated to implement missing functions and develop new features and valuable contracts. This helps developers significantly improve domain functionalities. This dissertation aims to build data management support for blockchain and smart contract ecosystems. We consider three areas of study on blockchain and smart contracts. Our first study is to bridge the gap between blockchain search engines and the content of smart contract codes. The purpose is to facilitate reusing existing smart contracts to reduce cost and enable rapid and quality software development. The second study presents our smart contracts modules to enforce code verification for trusted code sharing. Finally, the third study is a framework to utilize blockchain technology for global vaccine certification.