Formal Verification and Smart Contract Testing
Testing can help validate a smart contractâs expected behaviour for certain data inputs, but it cannot provide definitive proof for inputs that were not included in the tests. Therefore, testing alone cannot ensure the complete âfunctional correctnessâ of a program, meaning it cannot guarantee that the program will behave as intended for all possible input values.
In contrast, formal verification is an approach that assesses the correctness of software by comparing a formal model of the program to a formal specification. The formal model represents the program mathematically, while the formal specification defines the programâs properties and logical assertions regarding its execution.
- Unlike testing, formal verification can verify if a smart contract execution satisfies a formal specification for all possible executions, without the need for sample data.
- This approach reduces the time spent on running numerous unit tests and is more effective at identifying hidden vulnerabilities.
- Itâs important to note that formal verification techniques vary in terms of their complexity and practical usefulness.
How to Test a Smart Contract for Ethereum?
Public Blockchains like Ethereum are immutable, it is difficult to update the code of a smart contract once it has been deployed. To guarantee security, smart contracts must be tested before they are deployed to Mainnet. There are several strategies for testing contracts, but a test suite comprised of various tools and approaches is suitable for detecting both minor and significant security issues in contract code.
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