Integrating smart contracts into the modeling paradigm to harness the potential of models

Abstract

Despite the increasing interest in blockchain and smart contracts, their inherent complexity has impeded widespread adoption. In order to mitigate this issue, this work introduces SmaC, a model-based framework for the development of smart contracts in Solidity that enables the treatment of contracts as models, opening up new possibilities for their enhancement and maintenance.A key benefit of SmaC is its ability to impose a development pattern, which contributes to improved code quality and reduced vulnerabilities. The framework’s effectiveness is evaluated through several case studies, showing how model-driven engineering can mitigate contracts inherent complexity and promote better collaboration between developers and domain experts. As this work will demonstrate, when smart contracts are treated as models, a vast array of possibilities unfolds.