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Fujitsu Develops New Technology that Identifies Ethereum Smart Contract Bugs

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Fujitsu

On 7th March 2018, Fujitsu revealed in its Press Release section that its research and development center has come up with algorithms that will detect bug infected transaction sequences on the Ethereum blockchain.

Smart contracts are basically computer codes that can be used as a platform for exchanging shares, money, property etc. The platform of Ethereum smart contracts can also be used to build various apps. The codes and algorithm of smart contracts are supported on a decentralized open source network. The transaction process through a smart contract requires the sender to “drop” a crypto coin into the decentralized ledger. Smart contracts are described by the white paper of Ethereum as autonomous agents.

How Can Bugs Affect Ethereum Smart Contracts

The Ethereum platform allows the developers to build their own smart contracts. The smart contracts can be copied to more than one location and are then run in a distributed way. It is difficult to stop a contract after its execution. Moreover, the contract cannot be revised even when it has been infected by bugs. As Fujitsu says in the press release, in one such incident a flaw had caused havoc in a transaction of a considerable sum.

The Ethereum smart contract risks can be categorized into six groups and the technologies prior to the one developed by Fujitsu Laboratories and Fujitsu Research and Development Center failed to detect all these types of risks in advance.

  1. Reentrancy
  2. Authentication of the source of the transaction call
  3. Call stack restrictions
  4. Divide by zero
  5. Transaction order dependency
  6. Transaction uncertainty due to reliance on the timestamp

(Source: Fujitsu website)

Details Regarding the Technology Developed by Fujitsu

The major break made by Fujitsu is that the technology can pinpoint the pertinent addresses in the source code. The screenshot below shows how the newly developed technology will detect the risks.

  • Use of symbolic execution technology: The bugs in the source code may have the capability to abuse the language specifications of Ethereum that will help in creating a fake origin of the transaction call. The solution developed will detect these risks by using symbolic execution technology. It will virtually perform the transactions under different situations and as per the source code that is based on the order of improper processing. The proposed technology, according to the researchers, promises to be an accurate method of detecting the risks of the Ethereum smart contracts.
  • Spotting on the affected area of the source code: The technology developed by Fujitsu Laboratory and Fujitsu Research and Development Center to recognize the part of the source code that will be affected by the newly discovered risk. Symbolic execution is possible because the newly developed technology scrubs out idle commands from a debugging execution file, affixed with source-code data that corresponds with the Ethereum execution files. This facilitates the technology developed by Fujitsu to spot out the source code locations that concur with the risks detected in the execution file. This is done by analyzing the relationship between the debugging execution file and the execution file by utilizing information like the sequence and type of the virtually running the processing commands.

Concluding Thoughts

According to the labs and research center of Fujitsu, this technology has the potential of 100% detection of bugs compared to the prior technologies that were only 67% efficient. During the experimentation phase, it is said to have been 88% precise. The discussed technology is expected to solve the risks issue of Ethereum smart contracts and will pave the way for future developments of the smart contract technology. Apart from this the technology will effectively reduce the labor given for tasks like code evaluation and amend the code.

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Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice. Global Coin Report and/or its affiliates, employees, writers, and subcontractors are cryptocurrency investors and from time to time may or may not have holdings in some of the coins or tokens they cover. Please conduct your own thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency and read our full disclaimer.

Image courtesy of Pierre Metivier via Flickr

Altcoins

XNO Token of Xeno NFT Hub listed on Bithumb Korea Exchange

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Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 25th January, 2021, // ChainWire //

Xeno Holdings Limited (xno.live ), a blockchain solutions company based in Hong Kong, has announced the listing of its ecosystem utility token XNO on the ‘Bithumb Korea’ cryptocurrency exchange on January 21st 2021.

Xeno NFT Hub (market.xno.live ), developed by Xeno Holdings, enables easy minting of digital items into NFTs while also providing a marketplace where anyone can securely trade NFTs.

The Xeno NFT Hub project team includes former members of the technology project Yosemite X based in San Francisco and professionals such as Gabby Dizon who is a games industry expert and NFT space influencer based in Southeast Asia.

NFT(Non-Fungible Token) technology has recently gained huge focus in the blockchain arena and beyond, making waves in the online gaming sector, the art world, and the digital copyrights industry in recent years. The strongest feature of NFTs is that “NFTs are unique digital assets that cannot be replaced or forged”. Unlike fungible tokens such as Bitcoin or Ether, NFTs are not interchangeable for other tokens of the same type but instead each NFT has a unique value and specific information that cannot be replaced. This fact makes NFTs the perfect solution to record and prove ownership of digital and real-world items like works of art, game items, limited-edition collectibles, and more. One of the ways to have a successful…

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Altcoins

Should Crypto Projects Devote Resources to Community Growth and Marketing?

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2020 has been an incredible year for crypto as investors have generated windfall profits and crypto projects have seen their businesses gain the spotlight they’ve been looking for.  While Bitcoin has received most of the attention after major institutional investors announced they were accumulating the increasingly scarce asset, many altcoins have also seen their fair share of glory.  When looking at all the big winners of the past year, the first project that probably comes to mind is Chainlink, having appreciated by more than 550% YTD and now valued at over $4.5 billion.  But, the actual biggest winner of the year is HEX with a YTD return of over 5,000%.

I mention both of the above projects as they have each taken slightly different paths to achieve greatness.  Chainlink has devoted resources toward building a fundamentally sound business with many strategic partnerships while HEX has spent vast sums of money on marketing and promotion.  Both approaches are valid, but one thing is certain, it is absolutely imperative for crypto projects to let the crypto community know what makes them special.  Of course, one of the reasons that makes crypto so valuable is the powerful blockchain technology that most projects are utilizing.

Cryptocurrency vs. Blockchain Technology

It’s important to make a distinction between blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.  Although they are often used interchangeably, they are different.  Blockchain technology and crypto were both created after the 2008 financial crisis, but cryptocurrency…

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Altcoins

XENO starts VIP NFT trading service and collaborates with contemporary artist Hiro Yamagata

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Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 24th December, 2020, // ChainWire //

The XENO NFT Hub (https://xno.live) will provide a crypto-powered digital items and collectables trading platform allowing users to create, buy, and sell NFTs. Additionally it will support auction based listings, governance and voting mechanisms, trade history tracking, user rating and other advanced features.

As a first step towards its fully comprehensive service, XENO NFT Hub launched a recent VIP service to select users and early adopters in December 2020 with plans for a full Public Beta to open in June 2021. 

“NFTs are extremely flexible in their usage, from digital event tickets to artwork, and while NFTs have a very wide spectrum of uses and categories XENO will initially focus its partnership efforts and its own item curation on three primary areas: gaming, sports & entertainment, and collectibles.”, said XENO NFT Hub president Anthony Di Franco.

He also added “This does not mean we will prohibit other types of NFTs from our ecosystem However, it simply means that XENO’s efforts as a company will be targeted into these verticals initially as a cohesive business approach.”

Development and Procurement Lead, Gabby Dizon explained, “Despite our initial focus, we found ourselves with a unique opportunity to host some of the works of Mr. Hiro Yamagata. We are collaborating with Japanese artist Hiro Yamagata to enshrine some of his artwork into NFTs.”

Mr. Yamagata has…

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