Effective Ways to Ensure Smart Contract Security

In this evolving security landscape, with the constant threat of malicious hackers, blockchain remains a promising and prominent security-enhancing technology. When it first emerged, blockchain seemed a matter of cryptocurrencies.

It did not take too long for industries to understand the power of blockchain development and its revolutionizing effects on businesses.

Smart Contract Security lies at the core of blockchain applications, strengthening their powerpack efficiencies. No matter whether it is a blockchain application for healthcare, gaming, IoT, or business process management, the demand for Smart Contract development remains at the center of it.

Together, blockchain and smart contracts are metamorphosing transaction storage, transaction speed, workflows, and many more even in the absence of any trusted authority.

Being an innovative and superefficient technology, blockchain and smart contract development have been implemented across various business areas like digital asset exchange, supply chain, intellectual property trading, Etc.

It is true that the blockchain space is undergoing noticeable improvises. However, when it comes to strengthening smart contract security, companies lag. In many cases, multiple security issues in smart contracts pop up, bringing financial losses.

Even a single error in smart contract coding can cause catastrophe. Therefore, when writing a smart contract, security should always be the developer’s top priority. These security issues give rise to challenges for companies to implement decentralized applications in the digital space.

Consequently, it has become crucial to detect vulnerabilities in smart contracts and strengthen the security of blockchain-driven smart contracts. Here, we will dig deeper into smart contracts and the effective ways to enhance smart contract security.

Smart Contract in Brief

Smart contracts are computer programs that automatically execute the terms of an agreement between two parties. The code and all the agreements within it are available across a distributed, decentralized blockchain network where the code controls execution and transactions.

Smart contracts allow trusted transactions and agreements between disparate, anonymous parties to be completed without needing a central authority, legal structure, or another enforcement mechanism.

• Developers can design and build a range of tokens and applications leveraging smart contracts.
• From financial applications, supply chain, and logistics, to blockchain gaming experiences, smart contracts are beneficial.
• Similar to cryptocurrency transactions and data, smart contracts get stored on the blockchain. 
• Decentralized applications are smart contract-powered apps.
• Currently, DeFi technology is impacting the banking and finance industry.
• DeFi technology allows users to perform complex financial transactions effortlessly.

Developing smart contracts is not the end of the game; establishing and ensuring smart contract security is more crucial than the development part.

Digging into Smart Contract Security

Smart contract security is crucial for anyone working with or interacting with smart contracts. The blockchain industry is extremely dynamic and has earned billions of dollars, making it a prime target for malicious agents looking to exploit vulnerabilities.

Different security risks can pose different threats to smart contracts, so it's important to be aware of all the potential risks when working with them. These days, smart contracts suffer from different security issues.

And maintaining smart contract security has become a crucial issue for companies.

Factors Causing Smart Contract Security Vulnerabilities

Whether Solana or binance smart chain development, multiple factors are there causing issues in establishing security in smart contracts. Let's take a closer look at the reasons causing smart contract security vulnerabilities:

1. Oracle Manipulation

Smart contract security could be at risk if data providers are manipulated. There are possible solutions to the security problems associated with Oracles.

Oracle collects off-chain information to send on-chain, which allows for the creation of smart contracts that can interact with off-chain systems.

However, if incorrect inputs are sent to the blockchain by oracles, it could create problems for smart contracts. This kind of issue or Oracle issue requires the immediate attention of developers.

Developers need to ensure that the information stored in a blockchain oracle is correct and up-to-date.

2. Attacks at the Time of Reentrance

Reentrancy attacks take place when an attacker calls a function multiple times before the end of the first remodeling. For example, withdrawing balances from an account multiple times.

It can pose a serious problem while reaching out for external contracts. They can hinder the flow and make changes beyond anticipation. Such bugs can come in many forms and become the sole responsible for the system collapse.

3. Depending on Timestamp

Whenever a smart contract uses the block, timestamp dependence vulnerability takes place. The main function of the timestamp is to implement critical logic within a smart contract.

In the case of sending ETH or leveraging the function to generate a random number. It can bring about vulnerabilities to smart contract security. This function can be easily modified since it contains the transaction code of the smart contract.

Effective Ways to Ensure Smart Contract Security

Following are the effective ways to ensure robust smart contract security:

Managing Funds

There are different ways of managing funds throughout the development of smart contracts. 

In contract 

• During the transactions, funds get stored in the contract.
• Funds get transferred to the developer's address after the transaction.

Forwarding

• It is a way to transfer funds to a multi-sig wallet instead of storing them in the smart contract temporarily.
• This kind of funds transfer comes with a time-lock facility.

Consider Events to Track the contract Activity

Monitoring smart contracts with events are one way to secure them. You can track all the contract transactions, but the message calls are not recorded in the blockchain.

This means that only input parameters remain visible, and not the actual changes made to the state. Events can help trigger functions in the user interface. For example, consider the code below.

Conclusion

The smart contract is a complex thing. For years, smart contracts have been going through vulnerabilities. So, ensuring smart contract security is crucial thing for developers and companies.

Moreover, more and more companies are digging into web 3.0 to stay relevant in this digital landscape. Blockchain-driven smart contracts are one of the most essential aspects of staying ahead in the Web 3.0 rush.

EDIIIE blockchain and smart contract experts hold extensive knowledge and skill in developing highly secured smart contracts and maintaining security efficiently. Contact EDIIIE to learn more about any security-related issues in smart contracts.