Bug characteristics in blockchain systems: a large-scale empirical study

Zhiyuan Wan; David Lo; Xin Xia; Liang Cai

doi:10.1109/MSR.2017.59

Bug characteristics in blockchain systems: a large-scale empirical study

Zhiyuan Wan, David Lo, Xin Xia, Liang Cai

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research › peer-review

60 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Bugs severely hurt blockchain system dependability. A thorough understanding of blockchain bug characteristics is required to design effective tools for preventing, detecting and mitigating bugs. We perform an empirical study on bug characteristics in eight representative open source blockchain systems. First, we manually examine 1,108 bug reports to understand the nature of the reported bugs. Second, we leverage card sorting to label the bug reports, and obtain ten bug categories in blockchain systems. We further investigate the frequency distribution of bug categories across projects and programming languages. Finally, we study the relationship between bug categories and bug fixing time. The findings include: (1) semantic bugs are the dominant runtime bug category, (2) frequency distributions of bug types show similar trends across different projects and programming languages, (3) security bugs take the longest median time to be fixed, (4) 35.71% performance bugs are fixed in more than one year, performance bugs take the longest average time to be fixed.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings - 2017 IEEE/ACM 14th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories, MSR 2017
Subtitle of host publication	20–21 May 2017 Buenos Aires, Argentina
Editors	Abram Hindle, Lin Tan
Place of Publication	Piscataway NJ USA
Publisher	IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Pages	413-424
Number of pages	12
ISBN (Electronic)	9781538615447, 9781538615454
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/MSR.2017.59
Publication status	Published - 2017
Externally published	Yes
Event	IEEE International Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories 2017 - Buenos Aires, Argentina Duration: 20 May 2017 → 21 May 2017 Conference number: 14th http://2017.msrconf.org/#/home https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/7959735/proceeding (Proceedings)

Conference

Conference	IEEE International Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories 2017
Abbreviated title	MSR 2017
Country/Territory	Argentina
City	Buenos Aires
Period	20/05/17 → 21/05/17
Internet address	http://2017.msrconf.org/#/home https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/7959735/proceeding (Proceedings)

Keywords

blockchain
Bug characteristics
Empirical study

Access to Document

10.1109/MSR.2017.59

Cite this

Wan, Z., Lo, D., Xia, X., & Cai, L. (2017). Bug characteristics in blockchain systems: a large-scale empirical study. In A. Hindle, & L. Tan (Eds.), Proceedings - 2017 IEEE/ACM 14th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories, MSR 2017: 20–21 May 2017 Buenos Aires, Argentina (pp. 413-424). [7962390] IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. https://doi.org/10.1109/MSR.2017.59

Wan, Zhiyuan ; Lo, David ; Xia, Xin et al. / Bug characteristics in blockchain systems : a large-scale empirical study. Proceedings - 2017 IEEE/ACM 14th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories, MSR 2017: 20–21 May 2017 Buenos Aires, Argentina . editor / Abram Hindle ; Lin Tan . Piscataway NJ USA : IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2017. pp. 413-424

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title = "Bug characteristics in blockchain systems: a large-scale empirical study",

abstract = "Bugs severely hurt blockchain system dependability. A thorough understanding of blockchain bug characteristics is required to design effective tools for preventing, detecting and mitigating bugs. We perform an empirical study on bug characteristics in eight representative open source blockchain systems. First, we manually examine 1,108 bug reports to understand the nature of the reported bugs. Second, we leverage card sorting to label the bug reports, and obtain ten bug categories in blockchain systems. We further investigate the frequency distribution of bug categories across projects and programming languages. Finally, we study the relationship between bug categories and bug fixing time. The findings include: (1) semantic bugs are the dominant runtime bug category, (2) frequency distributions of bug types show similar trends across different projects and programming languages, (3) security bugs take the longest median time to be fixed, (4) 35.71% performance bugs are fixed in more than one year, performance bugs take the longest average time to be fixed.",

keywords = "blockchain, Bug characteristics, Empirical study",

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publisher = "IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers",

address = "United States of America",

note = "IEEE International Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories 2017, MSR 2017 ; Conference date: 20-05-2017 Through 21-05-2017",

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Wan, Z, Lo, D, Xia, X & Cai, L 2017, Bug characteristics in blockchain systems: a large-scale empirical study. in A Hindle & L Tan (eds), Proceedings - 2017 IEEE/ACM 14th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories, MSR 2017: 20–21 May 2017 Buenos Aires, Argentina ., 7962390, IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Piscataway NJ USA, pp. 413-424, IEEE International Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories 2017, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 20/05/17. https://doi.org/10.1109/MSR.2017.59

Bug characteristics in blockchain systems : a large-scale empirical study. / Wan, Zhiyuan; Lo, David; Xia, Xin et al.

Proceedings - 2017 IEEE/ACM 14th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories, MSR 2017: 20–21 May 2017 Buenos Aires, Argentina . ed. / Abram Hindle; Lin Tan . Piscataway NJ USA : IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2017. p. 413-424 7962390.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research › peer-review

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AU - Wan, Zhiyuan

AU - Lo, David

AU - Xia, Xin

AU - Cai, Liang

N1 - Conference code: 14th

PY - 2017

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N2 - Bugs severely hurt blockchain system dependability. A thorough understanding of blockchain bug characteristics is required to design effective tools for preventing, detecting and mitigating bugs. We perform an empirical study on bug characteristics in eight representative open source blockchain systems. First, we manually examine 1,108 bug reports to understand the nature of the reported bugs. Second, we leverage card sorting to label the bug reports, and obtain ten bug categories in blockchain systems. We further investigate the frequency distribution of bug categories across projects and programming languages. Finally, we study the relationship between bug categories and bug fixing time. The findings include: (1) semantic bugs are the dominant runtime bug category, (2) frequency distributions of bug types show similar trends across different projects and programming languages, (3) security bugs take the longest median time to be fixed, (4) 35.71% performance bugs are fixed in more than one year, performance bugs take the longest average time to be fixed.

AB - Bugs severely hurt blockchain system dependability. A thorough understanding of blockchain bug characteristics is required to design effective tools for preventing, detecting and mitigating bugs. We perform an empirical study on bug characteristics in eight representative open source blockchain systems. First, we manually examine 1,108 bug reports to understand the nature of the reported bugs. Second, we leverage card sorting to label the bug reports, and obtain ten bug categories in blockchain systems. We further investigate the frequency distribution of bug categories across projects and programming languages. Finally, we study the relationship between bug categories and bug fixing time. The findings include: (1) semantic bugs are the dominant runtime bug category, (2) frequency distributions of bug types show similar trends across different projects and programming languages, (3) security bugs take the longest median time to be fixed, (4) 35.71% performance bugs are fixed in more than one year, performance bugs take the longest average time to be fixed.

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Wan Z, Lo D, Xia X, Cai L. Bug characteristics in blockchain systems: a large-scale empirical study. In Hindle A, Tan L, editors, Proceedings - 2017 IEEE/ACM 14th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories, MSR 2017: 20–21 May 2017 Buenos Aires, Argentina . Piscataway NJ USA: IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. 2017. p. 413-424. 7962390 https://doi.org/10.1109/MSR.2017.59

Bug characteristics in blockchain systems: a large-scale empirical study

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Keywords

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