Metamorphic Testing for Smart Contract Validation:A Case Study of Ethereum-Based Crowdfunding Contracts

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how Metamorphic Testing can effectively validate Ethereum smart contracts by detecting faults, addressing the oracle problem, and improving contract reliability through tailored metamorphic relations and mutation testing.

Contribution

It introduces a set of MRs for smart contract testing and evaluates their effectiveness in detecting faults in an Ethereum crowdfunding contract.

Findings

Metamorphic Relations detected 25.65% of mutants.

Most effective MRs achieved an 89% mutant-killing rate.

MT improves smart contract testing reliability.

Abstract

Blockchain smart contracts play a crucial role in automating and securing agreements in diverse domains such as finance, healthcare, and supply chains. Despite their critical applications, testing these contracts often receives less attention than their development, leaving significant risks due to the immutability of smart contracts post-deployment. A key challenge in the testing of smart contracts is the oracle problem, where the exact expected outcomes are not well defined, complicating systematic testing efforts. Metamorphic Testing (MT) addresses the oracle problem by using Metamorphic Relations (MRs) to validate smart contracts. MRs define how output should change relative to specific input modifications, determining whether the tests pass or fail. In this work, we apply MT to test an Ethereum-based crowdfunding smart contract, focusing on core functionalities such as state transitions and donation tracking. We identify a set of MRs tailored for smart contract testing and generate test cases for these MRs. To assess the effectiveness of this approach, we use the Vertigo mutation testing tool to create faulty versions of the smart contract. The experimental results show that our MRs detected 25.65% of the total mutants generated, with the most effective MRs achieving a mutant-killing rate of 89%. These results highlight the utility of MT to ensure the reliability and quality of blockchain-based smart contracts.