Security Issues of Smart Contracts in Ethereum Platforms

Smart contracts belong to the most rapidly growing aspect of the world of cryptocurrencies. This phenomenon attracts great attention from researchers but also the business community, and the development brings daily a lot of novel applications. Smart contracts allow running contract code transparently for all parties, without the need for a centralized authority. One of the smart contract applications is the issuance of digital assets, so-called tokens, serving as fundraising fuel for Initial Coin Offerings. ICOs bring a new easy, and bureaucracyless way for startups to raise considerable funds from crowds with incredible speed. However, the technology hides a dark side in the form of speculative scams, hardly distinguishable from genuine fundraising activities. Evaluation audit of ICOs associated with the underlying security of smart contracts is a complex issue requiring many efforts. This paper focuses on one of the most popular blockchain frameworks, Ethereum, a prominent ICO and smart contract platform, and its dominant programming language, Solidity.