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Today, the world of technology is ruled by blockchain. Though blockchain is not very new, it took pace in 2011 when the first blockchain explorer was introduced followed by a cryptocurrency wallet that accounted for 28% of bitcoin transactions between 2012 and 2020. Today, blockchain and cryptocurrency are tightly associated with decentralisation.
With the various benefits of decentralisation, most importantly the need for a central authority to govern the rules being eliminated, more and more people have started relying on blockchain for investments, borrowing and lending money and other related transactions. Blockchain ensures the privacy of your information and gives you the liberty to choose who will have access to how much of your private data. On the other hand, it also ensures the data you receive on the systems are pre-verified from authorised agents.
The entire world of blockchain works on the system of cryptography – a method that uses digital signatures to give access to only those with authorised access to VIEW your data. The point to be noted here is fact that other users in the world can only view your data but cannot make any changes because of its tight integration and chained cryptography. To simplify, let’s understand the structure of a blockchain first. Visualise it as a chain of data that binds a set of blocks together.
Now each block that you see above has three elements that are the data, the hash and the hash from the previous block. Refer to the image below:
So, the code for every block is a combination of the hash of the current block, the hash of the previous block and a data code. This ensures that whenever someone tempers or even tries to temper with one block, all the following blocks making the chain will become invalid immediately. But this doesn’t mean that no changes can ever be updated in blockchain data. The only difference that lies here is the fact that whenever a user wishes to update any changes, the data entered by them will be added towards the end of the chain, more like our traditional ledger entry system that we studied back in school days.
The potential of blockchain-based applications is huge and that’s where decentralised applications come into the picture.
Let’s have a closer look at the decentralised applications before moving forward.
Decentralised applications or dApps are digital applications or programs that function on a blockchain or peer-to-peer network of computer systems. These applications are never controlled by a single authority and use the power of blockchain and smart contracts to enforce the agreement between the parties.
It’s this feature of these applications that make them secure, thereby distributing the ownership to multiple systems. So, whenever someone joins this network of applications, he/she gets a full copy of the blockchain. Any change or input introduced by any parties, once approved is also shared by all the systems that ensure everyone is updated with real-time data and helps verify that everything is still in order.
Another very effective way of securing and verifying your information/ data online is through smart contracts. Moving forward, let’s have a closer look at smart contracts
The term smart contracts were first introduced by Nick Szabo, in 1997. Exactly like any other contract, smart contracts are legally binding documents but purely digital in nature. It’s basically a piece of code that creates a business logic and is executed on the blockchain system in a decentralised manner. It’s a tiny computer program that is fed in a blockchain and its main function is to store, facilitate, and self-execute rules. A programmer is supposed to code a contract with certain rules that specify if ‘A’ situation is achieved, then ‘B’ will happen.
These digital contracts help gain autonomy and independence from third party structures that ensure the reliability, security, accuracy and profitability of your data
The prime examples of smart contracts and dApps include games, DEX (Decentralized Exchange), NFT marketplaces, gambling, blockchain-powered social networks, DeFi (Decentralized Finance), etc.
Now let’s focus on testing smart contracts and how to ensure a better quality of decentralized applications.
So, there are two basic features of blockchain applications, immutable and distributed. An immutable application means that once a smart contract is created, it can never be altered again and no one can go behind your back and temper the code of your contract. Any changes, if needed, need to be added towards the end of the smart contract. Distributed, on the other hand, means that the output of your contract has to be validated and accepted by everyone to become a part of the larger data system. This ensures no single person can have a monopoly over decisions and force a kind of action without others approving of the change. This makes tampering with a smart contract almost impossible, making it extremely reliable and secure.
Now, because of the same immutable feature of a smart contract, the minutest logic error in the application can cause serious damage to the application and data. When it comes to financial applications, individual wallets can be blocked and users may not be able to have access to the money they invested because of smart contract vulnerabilities. Is there a way to avoid these circumstances? The answer is testing.
There are well established QA consulting companies that adopt agile testing methodologies and provide end-to-end blockchain testing solutions for enterprises globally to help you ensure the proper safety of your application.
More on these companies later. Let’s move forward to how to go about the testing of a smart contract.
Proper testing is a must before using a contract in different situations to ensure its working properly. Below mentioned are some aspects of blockchain testing that all professional QA testing teams should take into consideration while going about the testing of a blockchain-based application.
The first step is to simulate, analyse and do a close prediction of all possible scenarios in the logic of each contract.
Start by answering the below-mentioned questions to make the process easier
Let’s take the example of developing a smart contract using Ethereum. While using Ethereum, it is important to set proper guidelines on the usage of the Gas Value – that’s the cost of a smart contract that Ethereum has set for its launch.
It’s all based on the security of an agreement. A situation where certain data is stuck in a contract is very similar to a situation when it’s stolen. This means a similar scenario can be used to test a blockchain-based application against data tempering as well.
Other than this, the general principle of testing any blockchain-based application is very similar to the way other applications are tested.
To ensure how accurate and failure-proof your application’s code is, your QA engineer is supposed to check each and every aspect of your app, including the date, parties of the contract, execution time, hash validation, and fund transfer processes.
Typically, the following tests are executed to achieve the above results.
Conducted to test the individual features of a smart contract
Executed after the modification of a smart contract. The idea is to re-run unit tests after every little modification in the code to ensure the smart contract remains error-free and operates smoothly
Tests all other smart contract modules connected with other systems and the main application to ensure they are well integrated
This is one of the most important aspects of smart contract testing because it helps verify that your smart contract meets all necessary regulatory requirements set by the local government or other governing bodies
The choice to opt for complete manual testing or a mixture of automated and manual testing depends on the testing strategy set by your software testing company. Manual testing ensures every aspect of your application is thoroughly tested whereas automated testing ensures full coverage given the size of the application data.
There are various characteristics of functional, security, and load testing as well that can help improve the quality of your blockchain-based applications.
A good software testing partner will closely work with your development team to foresee all possible contract outcomes and ensure no loopholes are left before the final release.
Decentralised applications and smart contracts are the future of the IT industry. A lot many businesses have already moved their systems to blockchain-based applications because of the various benefits that come into the picture with it.
Though trending, dApps and smart contracts are complex systems that require high precision and specialised engineering data requirements. It requires detailed testing mechanisms to minimise the number of errors and ensure the smooth functioning of your application. You need a specialised software testing partner that will help you evaluate and analyse your specific application requirements and help streamline the process for you.
We, at ImpactQA, make sure your Blockchain application fulfils all validation operations keeping a good check on privacy and security issues. We deliver Blockchain application testing services by using various testing techniques to deliver stable and secure applications.
Source: ImpactQA
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