Reconfigurable Smart Contracts for Renewable Energy Exchange with Re-Use of Verification Rules

Abstract

Smart contracts constitute the foundation for blockchain distributed applications. These constructs enable transactions in trustless environments using consensus algorithms and software-controlled verification rules. In the current state of the art, there is a shortage of works on the adaptability of smart contracts, and the re-use of their source code is limited mainly to cloning. The paper discusses the pattern of smart contract design and implementation with the overt declaration of verification rules. The author introduces two advantages of the pattern: Firstly, run-time reconfigurability of the list of smart contract verification rules to adjust for various transaction types. Secondly, the re-use of verification rules between different configurations of the smart contract, and among diverse smart contracts. The paper uses blockchain platform-independent stereotypes from a dedicated Unified Modeling Language (UML) profile for designing smart contracts and verification rules. The implementation of the pattern is developed in object-oriented Java language. The pattern exploits polymorphism and controls inheritance by using sealed classes with permission for specialization only for selected final ones. Thus, the pattern ensures two recently highly desired properties in smart contract design and development: re-use and security. Moreover, the declared verification rules list facilitates test automation and reduces test preparation effort due to the re-use of test classes among smart contract configurations. The pattern usage is illustrated in the example of renewable energy exchange within the prosumers community and amid various communities.