#blockchainqualityassurance

The scalability and performance of IT applications and systems are supposedly the key non-functional requirements for any business enterprise. These also help enterprises understand the readiness of any project for implementation. Due to its decentralized and distributed model, which enables peers in a network to collaborate, Blockchain shares similar considerations with Bitcoin. Here, each peer node needs to compute and communicate with other nodes to validate transactions and update a shared ledger. The salience of blockchain technology has hit home in recent times, with digital and cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin becoming the talk of the town. 

According to techjury.net, the global blockchain market is estimated to garner revenue to the tune of $20 billion by 2024. Also, the total worldwide spending on blockchain technology solutions in 2021 is expected to be around $6.6 billion (Source: Statista). So, with so much buzz around blockchain technology, it is imperative for businesses dealing with cryptocurrencies and this technology to ensure their security, scalability, and performance through blockchain testing or assurance. However, before delving into blockchain quality assurance, let us first understand what blockchain is all about.

What is a blockchain?

A blockchain is a decentralized, transparent, shared, and digitized public ledger that records every transaction and tracks assets in a network. It relies on a computer network where peers operate in a collaborative way. The best thing about the blockchain is the fact that every transaction recorded is encrypted and comes with a timestamp. Also, each record in the decentralized database carries a link to the previous one. In any blockchain network, the participants are the nodes sharing a ledger that is updated through peer-to-peer replication. A blockchain network eliminates duplication and therefore, is economical and efficient. Since the architecture is based on consensus, the transactions are validated, authenticated, secured, and verifiable. The above-mentioned factors make blockchain the best network to record, track, and store transactions.

Since transactions in a blockchain network are replicated at a high volume, the network may face latency issues. Also, some key considerations should be factored in while conducting blockchain testing of applications.

Key considerations for blockchain app testing

The main factors to consider while conducting blockchain application testing are as follows 

Smart contract testing: Similar to what is done in API testing, the methods for smart contracts should be validated. These may include validating the methods and verifying the conditional statement and the boundary value. Thereafter, the validation for encrypting the smart contract should be transmitted to another system through a distributed ledger. At the unit level testing of the blockchain architecture, all APIs for the smart contract are tested individually followed by integration testing.

Node testing: A blockchain functions through network nodes in a distributed peer-to-peer network using an authentication protocol. It checks whether the majority of nodes have approved the transaction and validated the block. This is why all nodes must be tested independently.

Performance: For any blockchain performance testing, information related to network latency and based on expected transaction size, block size, and network size should be made available. It also needs details of the duration of a query, returning the output through a specialized authentication protocol. Thus, any blockchain performance testing is conducted on such parameters, and to prevent any abrupt downside or peak, cloud-based features such as auto-scaling should be leveraged.

Security: Blockchain has been envisioned as a secure way to record transactions in a network, and so, its security should be maintained at all levels and at all times. To ensure the integrity of the network, all transactions are encrypted cryptographically. However, should the identity layer get hacked, there is no stopping the instantaneous transactions. Hence, blockchain security testing should overcome challenges as mentioned below:

Wallet signature method

Access and authentication

Private keys

Secure hash and consensus algorithm

Vulnerability assessment

Follow OWAPS guidelines for web and mobile applications

Validating information

The blockchain testing framework has to deal with more challenges that are not limited to the above few. These mainly relate to the implementation of blockchain in an application. Nonetheless, the above-mentioned factors act as guidelines for testing blockchain implementations effectively and with proper verification and validation.

Further, to ensure greater trust, security, performance, and scalability of the blockchain architecture, testers should follow a suite of best practices as mentioned below:

Shift-left testing: As more blockchain teams are implementing Agile and DevOps methodologies in the value chain, employing the shift-left method of testing becomes important. With shift-left testing, teams can conduct various tests early and reuse them continuously through a blockchain test automation framework. By shifting testing up in the value chain, early and iterative feedback on errors is received and acted upon. Thus, by fixing defects early on in the blockchain development, their impact on the business can be minimized or eliminated.

API testing: This type of testing addresses the interaction of applications inside and outside the blockchain ecosystem. Let us understand its importance with an example. When a transaction is submitted to an API, it ought to be validated under specific rules and guidelines to create an updated order. The order is subsequently distributed by the blockchain and the API receives a confirmation of the same. So, testers must validate the applications’ interactions inside and outside the blockchain at every step and ensure the correct handling of API requests.

Functional testing: Functional testing for blockchain applications evaluates business processes and scenarios. It does so by keeping blockchain components such as block size, chain size, data transmission, and the addition of a block into consideration. It plays a crucial role in assessing the business circumstances and authenticating every transaction that gets added to the blockchain.

Integration testing: Since blockchain deployment can be across several systems, locations, and environments operating in parallel, the need for several components to seamlessly interface with each other becomes critical. With integration testing, all touchpoints including the APIs are tested for validation.

Conclusion

In this day of rising cybercrime, Blockchain is fast emerging as a technology that can offer secure payments. As a suitable platform for digital transformation, it offers a cost-saving, decentralized, disruptive, and secure alternative for record-keeping and facilitating transactions. However, it is only with blockchain assurance that the quality, integrity, scalability, performance, and security of the framework or network can be assured.  

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James Daniel is a software Tech enthusiastic & works at Cigniti Technologies. I'm having a great understanding of today's software testing quality that yields strong results and always happy to create valuable content & share thoughts.