Efficient Logging for Blockchain Applications

TL;DR

The paper introduces the Ethereum Logging Framework (ELF), a configurable tool that simplifies and accelerates log data extraction from Ethereum smart contracts for better blockchain application analysis.

Contribution

It presents ELF, a novel open-source framework that enables cost-efficient logging and flexible data extraction from Ethereum smart contracts, addressing current limitations in blockchain log analysis.

Findings

ELF supports easy integration into smart contracts.

ELF enables extraction of logs into common formats.

Case studies demonstrate ELF's effectiveness on Ethereum.

Abstract

Second generation blockchain platforms, like Ethereum, can store arbitrary data and execute user-defined smart contracts. Due to the shared nature of blockchains, understanding the usage of blockchain-based applications and the underlying network is crucial. Although log analysis is a well-established means, data extraction from blockchain platforms can be highly inconvenient and slow, not least due to the absence of logging libraries. To close the gap, we here introduce the Ethereum Logging Framework (ELF) which is highly configurable and available as open source. ELF supports users (i) in generating cost-efficient logging code readily embeddable into smart contracts and (ii) in extracting log analysis data into common formats regardless of whether the code generation has been used during development. We provide an overview of and rationale for the framework's features, outline implementation details, and demonstrate ELF's versatility based on three case studies from the public Ethereum blockchain.