Blockchain technology is still developing and shows no signs of stopping. With addition, the globe has been awash in companies employing blockchain’s cryptographic technology for data transfers. Unsurprisingly, it is anticipated that by 2024, worldwide spending on blockchain-based solutions would amount to almost $19 billion.
But do we comprehend what a blockchain is, how it operates, or the difficulties one experiences when testing one?
We will cover the obstacles, different testing methods, testing procedures, and best practices, as well as everything else you need to know about blockchain testing.
Describe Blockchain:
Blockchain serves as an immutable ledger to store data, making it hard to alter or hack. It is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) that makes it easier to record transactions and track assets across a network.
Records or blocks are joined using cryptography to form a blockchain. Each record contains a cryptographic hash, a timestamp, and transaction information from the preceding block. They produce a chain of blocks and make transactions irreversible since each block contains data from the previous block.
Records or blocks are joined using cryptography to form a blockchain. Each record contains a cryptographic hash, a timestamp, and transaction information from the preceding block. They produce a chain of blocks and make transactions irreversible since each block contains data from the previous block.
Four different approaches can be used to construct a blockchain: public, private, permissioned, or consortium.
Public Blockchain Network: The public blockchain network is decentralised and self-governing in nature since anybody may join and participate in it, allowing anyone to view, publish, and amend ongoing activities. Before contemplating this for your company, you should keep in mind that the public blockchain has inadequate security and little to no transaction privacy.
Private Blockchain Network: This decentralised network, which is also controlled by a single entity, controls the blockchain’s participation, execution, and upkeep. You have the option of hosting it locally or behind a firewall.
Permissioned Blockchain Network: This network combines elements of both public and private blockchains and allows anybody to access it after undergoing identification verification.
Consortium Blockchain: A consortium blockchain is a private collection of blockchains, each of which is run by a different company. These companies collaborate to exchange information to improve workflows, transparency, and accountability.
Blockchain technology suffers from a lack of testing methods, standards and processes because it is still a new technology on the market.
Although blockchain’s distinctive characteristics have made it attractive across a variety of businesses, they also add to its complexity. As a result, it is critical to test and certify blockchain systems before putting them into use in a real-world setting.
What is Blockchain Testing?
Blockchain testing is the methodical verification of the many blockchain elements, including smart contracts, blocks, mining, wallets, transactions, and others. Through blockchain testing, one can make sure that each blockchain network is safe, functional, and operating as intended. A great blockchain solution may be created by ensuring complete test coverage, which is the main goal of blockchain testing.
However, the testing industry faces enormous hurdles due to blockchain. Top difficulties that one could encounter while testing include:
- Acquiring knowledge of blockchain technology and developing test plans
- Lack of best practises and standardised blockchain testing equipment
- confirming and validating every block that is added to the blockchain network for each transaction.
- preserving chain and block sizes.
- Cryptographic data sharing failure hazards.
Functional testing, performance testing, security testing, node testing, and penetration testing are some of the suggested techniques for testing blockchain software solutions.
Functional testing: Functional testing is carried out to assess the blockchain solution’s compliance with particular feature criteria because it frequently outlines the functionality of the system. Black-box testing, which includes functional testing, simply checks the functionality of a programme without examining its underlying operations or organisational structures. Therefore, to run functional tests, the QA does not need to be familiar with the programming language that was used or how the component of the blockchain system was created. Functional testing includes, for instance, regression testing, integration testing, unit testing, and smoke testing.
Performance testing: It makes sure that the blockchain application operates correctly under realistic workloads and environmental circumstances. Performance testing assesses the blockchain solution’s value and capabilities in terms of scalability, speed, stability, and reliability under many circumstances. It seeks to eliminate performance bottlenecks and finds areas for development in order to accelerate, stabilise, and rely on the blockchain solution.
Testing: It is important to independently check each redirected node that is accessible on the network to ensure accurate recording and a secure connection.
Penetration testing: Penetration testing is a simulated cyber assault on a blockchain system that aids in identifying any weaknesses that might be exploited. In order to find holes that may be exploited by code injection attacks, penetration testing involves making attempts to infiltrate servers, APIs, etc.
Understanding Blockchain Testing Tools and Frameworks
Now that we are aware of the many blockchain testing methodologies, it is time to move on to some of the most widely used blockchain testing frameworks and tools.
- Eth-tester: is a tool for Ethereum-based dApps that offers a high degree of abstraction for testing. It tightly enforces the following distinct input types and formats:
- While the 0x prefix is not required, it is imperative that the hexadecimal values be represented as text strings rather than bytes.
- Encoding 32-byte hashes into hexadecimal numbers is essential.
- Any address that includes mixed-case alpha characters must be verified as a checksummed address, as stated in EIP-55.
- The network should use integer format to express each numeric data.
By combining APIs, Smart Contracts, and Web3, developers may recreate production like the Ethereum blockchain using Ethereum tester.
Truffle Suite: One of the all-inclusive suites for building, testing, debugging, and deploying blockchain applications is the truffle suite. Truffle suit is a collection of tools, including as Ganache, Drizzle, Truffle, and Truffle for VSCode, that facilitate the creation of smart contracts.
BitcoinJ: An asynchronous, thread-per-connection, complete verification mode, lightweight, simplified payment verification mode, wallet class, and micropayment channels are all features of the BitcoinJ library. Developers may create safe and dependable contract-based crypto wallet applications using BitcoinJ.
Manticore: A symbolic execution tool with a wide range of capabilities, including instrumentation for the study of smart contracts, modules, and binaries, programme exploration, input creation, error detection, and programmatic interface.
Populus: It is an Ethereum framework that serves as a well-integrated collection of resources for developing and testing smart contracts.
Corda: Building decentralised apps on a safe, private, and scalable platform is possible with Corda, a distributed, open-source ledger platform. It is a peer-to-peer, scalable platform that enables developers to establish a programme that can foster trust among market participants. Asset fluidity, a single identity with mutual membership, interoperability, and safeguarded transactions are some of its advantages. Additionally, the blockchain application has built-in tools for integration testing, contract testing, load testing, and flow testing.
