Secure Decentralized Application Development of Blockchain-based Games

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present Ethereum decentralized application development methodology with focus on security issues and its verification. We introduce key concepts that are related to developing decentralized applications and Crypto Collectibles games. Moreover, the requirements for blockchain projects were presented along with a selection of use case examples. The paper concerns the application design process issues, starting from the methodology used, going through the description of requirements and specification, ending up with the implementation. Finally, an overview of the issues associated with the security of Ethereum decentralized applications is presented. We compared guidelines from Ethereum Smart Contract Best Practices by ConsenSys, Smart Contract Security Verification Standard created by SecuRing, Decentralized Application Security Project introduced by NCC Group, Security Considerations from Solidity documentation, Ethereum Smart Contracts Security Recommendations from Guylando Knowledge Lists, and Smart Contract Weakness Classification and Test Cases. It was discussed which guideline should be followed and when should the verification take place, considering the life cycle of the application. The paper covers different security risks related to blockchain games along with examples of how vulnerabilities can arise, how they can be detected during security verification phase, and countermeasures to address them.