Evaluation of Tools for Analyzing Smart Contracts in Distributed Ledger Technologies

Abstract

Despite the fact that the extent of interest in distributed ledger technologies has slightly decreased after the peak of Bitcoin popularity this area continues to evolve. One of the popular areas is the development of smart contracts which introduces a new paradigm of writing programs. This inflicts additional difficulties associated primarily with the high costs of error. This paper reviews the typical vulnerabilities that are widespread during development in the Solidity language. It also presents an analysis of existing tools to help identify software bugs. It is shown that there is no universal technique at the moment and if the risks are high, one should not solely check the code with available instruments but also conduct a manual audit with help of an expert.