Best Practices for Developing Secure Web3 Applications: Building Trustworthy DApps

Building a trustworthy DApp requires a focus on security, stability, and user experience in five aspects: smart contract development, smart contract testing, front-end development, middleware development, and smart contract deployment.

By Salus

Developing trustworthy DApps is crucial for establishing user trust, ensuring security, providing a good user experience, and driving the application of blockchain technology. Trustworthy DApps provide users with a secure, transparent, and decentralized interaction environment, laying a solid foundation for the sustainable development and widespread application of blockchain technology. We mainly explain the technology stack for building DApps from the following five aspects:

Smart Contract Development: Ensure that the design of smart contracts conforms to best practices and security principles, follows a modular and scalable architecture for future upgrades and modifications.
Smart Contract Testing: Conduct comprehensive unit testing, integration testing, and system testing to ensure the correctness and stability of the contracts. Simulate various scenarios and attacks to check the robustness and security of the contracts.
Front-end Development: Ensure a user-friendly and easy-to-use interface that securely interacts with smart contracts. Implement necessary validation and authorization mechanisms to protect user privacy and assets.
Middleware Development: Ensure the security and reliability of the middleware, protect user data and transactions through appropriate encryption and authentication mechanisms. Additionally, the middleware needs to provide efficient interfaces and functions for seamless interaction between the front-end and smart contracts.
Smart Contract Deployment: Ensure the correctness and integrity of the contract during deployment, and perform necessary data migration and transfer. Choose appropriate deployment tools and networks, and adhere to best practices and security guidelines.

1 Smart Contract Development

1.1 Characteristics of Smart Contracts

Smart contracts are the core components of DApps, defining the logic and functionality of DApps. Smart contracts have unique programming languages, including Solidity, Vyper, Move, and Rust, among others. Understanding the characteristics of smart contracts is crucial for DApp development. Here are some key features:

Transactional: Smart contracts either execute entirely successfully or roll back to an unmodified state during execution. This requires careful attention to function API design, avoiding parameter overloading, and handling errors with care during smart contract development.
Error Handling: Common error handling methods include using "require" statements to pass error messages or using "revert" statements to define custom error types. These error handling methods result in transaction failures and require custom error type capture in the front-end.
Execution Cost: Smart contract state storage consumes gas fees, so when designing storage objects, it's important to use declared memory space efficiently to avoid excessive memory usage. Additionally, different data structure declarations in different locations incur different costs, and functions that change state consume gas.
Immutability: Once deployed, smart contracts cannot be dynamically replaced or upgraded. Therefore, it's important to consider reliance on upgradeable architecture before deployment and ensure the contract's upgradeability.
Permissions and Visibility: Contracts are transparent to everyone on the network, so sensitive data should not be stored in contracts, and reliance on blockchain state as the basis for core business logic should be avoided. It's recommended to use permission control mechanisms such as Ownable and AccessControl.
Security: Contract security is crucial and should follow security best practices, including contract code security guidelines and thorough testing. Unverified contract code should not be blindly trusted, and its normal operation should not be subjectively expected.

1.2 Security Practices

In DApp development, ensuring the security and auditability of smart contracts is crucial. Here are some best practices and recommendations to ensure the security of smart contracts:

Standardized Development Framework: Using a standardized development framework can help improve the credibility of smart contracts. Standardized development frameworks are typically created and maintained by experienced developers and security experts, containing verified and optimized code and patterns. By using these frameworks, developers can avoid common security issues and use tested and audited code to enhance contract security. For example, OpenZeppelin is a widely used, verified smart contract development framework that provides standard contract templates and libraries to help developers build secure and reliable contracts.
Logging with Events: Using events to log the execution of smart contracts can better track the functionality and operations of the contract. Events can be defined and triggered within the contract to record detailed information about an operation, such as the caller's address, timestamp, and parameters passed to the function. This log information is valuable for auditing contracts and identifying potential vulnerabilities. For example, in a crowdfunding contract, an event can be defined to record the details of each donation, including the donor's address and donation amount. This way, all operations and changes to the contract can be recorded for easy inspection and analysis by auditors.
Implementing Access Control: Access control is a mechanism used to control who can access certain resources or perform certain operations, and to authenticate before access or execution. In smart contracts, modifiers can be used to implement access control, which can be added to functions to check specific conditions before execution. By implementing access control, it can be ensured that only authorized entities can perform specific operations or access sensitive data. For example, in a voting contract, a modifier can be defined to verify that only specific addresses can vote, ensuring that only authorized users can participate in the voting process.
Following the Principle of Least Privilege: The principle of least privilege requires that each user be granted the minimum access permissions necessary to perform their work. In smart contracts, minimum permissions can be implemented through access control mechanisms. By implementing access control and following the principle of least privilege, the permissions granted to each entity can be limited to ensure that they can only perform necessary operations. For example, in a multi-user contract, different permission levels can be defined for each user based on their identity and needs, granting them only the necessary permissions to prevent abuse and unnecessary operations. This can reduce the risk of contract attacks, as even if an account is compromised, the attacker can only perform limited operations.
Multi-Signature: Using multi-signature for critical transactions is an important security practice in smart contracts. Multi-signature requires multiple parties to sign before a critical transaction can be completed. This mechanism can provide additional security and mitigate potential attack risks, such as replay attacks and transaction malleability.
Handling Timers and Timeouts: Due to the unpredictable execution time of transactions in blockchain networks, smart contracts are susceptible to time-related attacks, such as predicting random number attacks, front-running attacks, and sandwich attacks. To mitigate these time-related attack risks, using timers and timeout mechanisms is an effective method. Timers can be used to schedule functions in the contract to execute at specific times, avoiding reliance on the execution time of the blockchain network. Timeout mechanisms can limit the execution time of certain functions in the contract, ensuring that they do not execute indefinitely.

1.3 Upgradability of Smart Contracts

Smart contract upgradability refers to the process of updating or modifying smart contracts deployed on the blockchain. Smart contract upgradability involves changing the business logic of smart contracts while preserving the contract's state. Smart contract upgrades allow developers to improve the logic, functionality, or security of contracts to meet new requirements or fix issues in existing contracts. Upgrading smart contracts is a complex activity that requires careful consideration to prevent introducing vulnerabilities.

Smart contract upgrades typically involve the following steps:

Writing New Contract Code: Developers write new contract code based on the required improvements to the original contract. The new code should undergo rigorous testing to ensure its correctness and security.
Deploying the New Contract: The new contract code needs to be deployed with a different contract address than the original contract. Before deploying the new contract, developers need to ensure the correct handling of data migration or transfer during the upgrade process.
Migrating or Transferring Data: If smart contract upgrades involve data migration or transfer, developers need to design mechanisms to ensure that data is correctly migrated or transferred in the new contract. This typically involves interacting with the old contract and transforming data.
Updating Contract Addresses or Interfaces: Once the new contract is successfully deployed, developers need to update the applications or user interfaces that interact with the contract to ensure they are compatible with the new contract's address or interface.

2 Smart Contract Testing

Smart contract testing refers to the application of various testing methods and techniques to smart contracts to verify their functionality, security, performance, and correctness. The goal of smart contract testing is to discover potential issues, vulnerabilities, and errors in contracts and ensure that the behavior of contracts meets expectations in various scenarios.

2.1 Why Test

Testing smart contracts is an important practice in smart contract development for several reasons:

Validating Contract Functionality: Smart contracts are used to execute specific functions, such as transfers and state updates. Unit testing helps validate whether the contract's functions work as expected, aiding in the discovery and resolution of potential errors to ensure the contract's behavior and logic are correct.
Ensuring Contract Security: Smart contracts often involve handling and managing assets, such as cryptocurrencies, making contract security crucial. Unit testing can check for common vulnerabilities and threats to the contract, such as reentrancy attacks and integer overflows, helping discover and fix potential security vulnerabilities to ensure the contract's security.
Improving Code Quality: Unit testing helps developers write high-quality code by verifying its correctness and ensuring it functions properly in various scenarios. This contributes to improving the code's robustness, reliability, and maintainability, reducing the cost of future maintenance.
Supporting Refactoring and Extension: With changing requirements during smart contract development, refactoring or extending contracts may be necessary. A comprehensive unit test suite ensures that refactoring or extension processes do not break existing functionality and logic, maintaining code stability and simplifying future development and maintenance work.
Continuous Integration and Deployment: In a continuous integration and deployment environment, unit testing is a crucial step. By automatically running unit tests, issues in the code can be promptly discovered and resolved, ensuring code quality and reliability, thus improving the development team's efficiency and accelerating product release.

2.2 What to Test

When testing smart contracts, we primarily test the following aspects:

Contract Functionality and Behavior: The main goal of testing smart contracts is to verify whether the contract's functionality and behavior work as expected. This includes testing whether the contract's various functions and methods execute correctly and produce the expected results. For example, if a contract is a transfer contract, we can test whether it correctly facilitates fund transfers.
Contract Boundary Cases: Testing the contract's behavior in various boundary cases is essential. This includes testing boundary values of input parameters, such as minimum values, maximum values, and empty values, as well as testing the contract's ability to handle exceptional situations, such as handling invalid inputs and unauthorized operations. Testing boundary cases helps discover potential issues and vulnerabilities in the contract.
Contract Security: Security is an important aspect of smart contract testing. We need to test whether the contract has potential security vulnerabilities, such as reentrancy attacks, integer overflows, and unauthorized access. Through security audits and testing for specific vulnerability types, we can discover and fix security issues in the contract, ensuring the safety of user assets.
Contract Performance and Scalability: Smart contracts need to have good performance and scalability to handle a large number of transactions and users. Therefore, performance testing and stress testing are necessary to verify the contract's performance and stability under high loads and concurrent user scenarios. Testing the contract's performance and scalability helps optimize the contract's design and implementation to improve its throughput and response time.
Contract Integration and Compatibility: If smart contracts need to integrate with other components or services, integration testing is required to verify the contract's collaboration with other components. This includes integration with front-end applications, interaction with other contracts, and testing the contract's compatibility in different Ethereum client and network environments to ensure consistency and reliability in different environments.

2.3 Testing Methods

Unit Testing: Unit testing is a method of testing the various functions and methods in smart contracts. By writing test scripts, simulating contract inputs and environments, and asserting the contract's outputs, developers can verify whether the contract's behavior meets expectations.
Integration Testing: Integration testing is a method of testing the interaction between different components. In smart contract development, integration testing can be used to test the integration of contracts with front-end applications or other services (such as blockchain nodes or databases). Integration testing ensures the proper collaboration of the contract with other components and verifies the overall system's functionality and performance.
Property-Based Testing: Property-based testing focuses on whether the contract's behavior satisfies predefined properties. These properties are assertions about the contract's behavior, indicating that they should always hold true in different scenarios. Static analysis and dynamic analysis are two common techniques used to perform property-based testing. Static analyzers take the smart contract's source code as input and output results, declaring whether the contract satisfies a certain property. Dynamic analysis generates symbolic inputs or specific inputs for smart contract functions to see if there are any execution traces that violate specific properties.
Security Audit: Security audit is also a manual testing process. By carefully reviewing the contract's code and logic, and using professional auditing tools and techniques, potential vulnerabilities and security risks can be discovered. Security audits are crucial for protecting assets in contracts and ensuring user safety. If you have smart contract auditing needs, please contact Salus, and we will provide you with high-quality services.

2.4 Testing Tools

Foundry and Hardhat are popular development tools used for testing smart contracts.

Foundry is a TypeScript-based smart contract development framework that provides a powerful set of tools and libraries for creating and testing Ethereum smart contracts.

Foundry uses Mocha and Chai, two popular JavaScript testing frameworks, to write and execute various test cases.
Foundry provides built-in assertion functions to validate the expected behavior of smart contracts.
Foundry also supports testing using a simulator to avoid resource and cost consumption on the actual Ethereum network.

Hardhat is a powerful Ethereum development environment for writing, deploying, and testing smart contracts.

Hardhat integrates Mocha and Chai testing frameworks, as well as other useful tools such as Ethers.js and Waffle.
Hardhat provides built-in assertion functions to validate the behavior and state of smart contracts.
Hardhat also supports testing using a virtual machine to avoid operations on the actual Ethereum network.

When using Foundry or Hardhat for testing smart contracts, you can test the following:

Whether the functionality and logic of the smart contract work as expected.
Whether the contract interacts correctly with other contracts.
Whether the contract's exceptional handling in various scenarios is correct.
Whether the contract's state changes are correct.
Whether the deployment and usage of the contract in different network environments are correct.

These tools also provide additional features such as code coverage analysis and performance testing to help developers better assess and improve the quality and performance of their smart contracts.

3 Front-end Development

3.1 Choosing a Front-end Framework

In DApp development, choosing the right front-end framework is crucial for developing secure and trustworthy front-end applications.

3.1.1 ethers.js

ethers.js is a JavaScript library for building DApp front-ends. ethers.js is the preferred choice for many developers to build DApp front-ends. Many well-known DApp projects use ethers.js for interacting with the Ethereum network and smart contract operations.

It provides the following key features:

Ethereum Account Management: ethers.js allows you to generate and manage the public key, private key, and address of Ethereum accounts. You can use these accounts for transactions, calling smart contract methods, and other operations.
Smart Contract Interaction: ethers.js provides a concise set of APIs for interacting with smart contracts on the Ethereum network. You can use ethers.js to deploy smart contracts, call contract methods, and retrieve contract states. ethers.js also offers type-safe smart contract encoding and decoding, making interaction with smart contracts easier and more reliable.
Transaction Creation and Signing: With ethers.js, you can create and send Ethereum transactions. ethers.js provides a simple interface to construct transaction objects and supports transaction signing, allowing you to securely send Ether and execute contract operations.
Ethereum Unit Conversion, Handling Ethereum Events, Subscribing to Blockchain Events, and Other Features: ethers.js provides many other useful features, such as Ethereum unit conversion (e.g., from Wei to Ether), handling Ethereum events (e.g., listening to contract events), and subscribing to blockchain events. These features make it more convenient and efficient to build DApp front-ends.

For DApp front-end development, ethers.js has the following advantages:

User-Friendly: ethers.js provides an intuitive API, making interaction with the Ethereum blockchain simple and easy.
Security: ethers.js offers secure methods for handling private keys and signing transactions, ensuring the safety of user assets.
Feature-Rich: ethers.js provides many useful features, such as Ethereum unit conversion and handling Ethereum events, simplifying the development process.

For DApp front-end development, ethers.js has the following disadvantages:

Learning Curve: For beginners, understanding Ethereum concepts and principles may require some time and effort.
Dependency on Ethereum Network: The functionality of ethers.js depends on the availability and stability of the Ethereum network. Network issues may affect the normal operation of DApps.

3.1.2 React

React is a popular front-end framework for building user interfaces. While React itself does not directly provide blockchain interaction capabilities, you can integrate React with blockchain in the following ways to achieve blockchain interaction functionality:

Using Web3.js: Web3.js is a JavaScript library for interacting with the Ethereum network. You can integrate Web3.js into a React project and use it to connect to the Ethereum network, deploy and call smart contracts, and send transactions. Through Web3.js, you can communicate with Ethereum nodes and perform operations related to blockchain interaction.
Using ethers.js: ethers.js is another popular JavaScript library for interacting with the Ethereum network. It provides a concise set of APIs for handling Ethereum accounts, deploying and calling smart contracts, and sending transactions. You can use ethers.js in a React project to implement blockchain interaction functionality.
Using Blockchain Explorer APIs: Some blockchain explorers (such as Etherscan or Infura) provide APIs that allow developers to interact with the Ethereum network through RESTful interfaces. You can use these APIs in a React project to retrieve blockchain data, query transactions, and obtain contract information.
Using Wallet Integration Libraries: Some wallet integration libraries (such as MetaMask or WalletConnect) provide functionality for interacting with the Ethereum network and offer convenient user interfaces and authentication. You can use these libraries in a React project to integrate user wallets, allowing users to perform transactions and interact with smart contracts.

The methods of integrating React with blockchain interaction can be combined with React's component-based development pattern. You can create dedicated components to handle the logic and user interface for blockchain interaction. Through interaction with the blockchain network, you can implement functionalities such as querying account balances, executing contract methods, and listening to blockchain events.

It is important to note that security and privacy are crucial in blockchain interaction. Ensure proper handling of private keys, transaction signing, and restricting user permissions for sensitive operations. Use the latest security best practices and adhere to blockchain network specifications and recommendations to ensure the security and reliability of your application.

Compared to ethers.js, React has the following advantages in blockchain interaction:

Powerful Ecosystem: React has a large developer community and extensive support from third-party libraries. This means you can easily find libraries and tools integrated with React to support blockchain interaction. The widespread support in the React ecosystem can provide you with more solutions and resources.
Component-Based Development: React's component-based development pattern makes it more modular and maintainable to build functionalities for blockchain interaction. You can encapsulate the logic and user interface for blockchain interaction into independent components, making code organization and reuse clearer and more convenient.
Virtual DOM: React uses virtual DOM technology to minimize DOM operations by comparing differences between the previous and current states, improving performance and rendering efficiency. This is helpful for handling large amounts of blockchain data and frequent interface updates.

Compared to ethers.js, React has the following disadvantages in blockchain interaction:

Additional Learning Curve: If you have not previously worked with React, mastering the basic concepts and workings of React may require some learning curve. This may prolong the time to implement blockchain interaction functionalities.
Integration Complexity: The flexibility and freedom of React may lead to relatively complex integration with blockchain interaction. You need additional work to ensure compatibility between React and blockchain libraries and handle potential integration issues.

In contrast, ethers.js is a JavaScript library specifically designed for interacting with the Ethereum network, providing a concise set of APIs for direct and simple interaction with Ethereum. Compared to React, ethers.js may be more focused on interacting with Ethereum, offering more blockchain-related functionalities and tools.

However, the advantages of using React for blockchain interaction lie in its powerful ecosystem, component-based development advantages, and performance benefits from virtual DOM technology. This makes React a flexible, scalable, and efficient choice, especially suitable for the development of large and complex applications.

3.2 Setting Up Scaffold Projects

When developing a DApp, after choosing a suitable front-end framework, the next step usually involves setting up a scaffold project. A scaffold is a starting point or basic template that provides default project structure, configuration, sample code, and tools. By using a scaffold, developers can avoid the tedious work of building an application from scratch and instead rapidly develop based on existing default settings and sample code. A scaffold can also provide some best practices and implementations of common functionalities, assisting developers in following best development practices.

3.2.1 Main Components of a Scaffold

Scaffolds for DApps typically include the following main components:

Smart Contracts: The scaffold provides one or more sample smart contracts for handling the application's business logic. These contracts define the functionality and behavior of the DApp.
Front-end Interface: The scaffold usually includes a basic front-end interface for interacting with users and showcasing the DApp's functionality. These interfaces can be built using technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Test Scripts: The scaffold provides some sample test scripts for verifying the correctness and reliability of smart contracts. These test scripts can help developers write and run automated tests to ensure the proper operation of the DApp in different scenarios.
Configuration Files: The scaffold typically includes some configuration files for setting up the development environment, deploying smart contracts, connecting to the Ethereum network, and more. These configuration files can be customized based on the developer's needs.

3.2.2 What to Consider When Setting Up a Scaffold

When setting up a scaffold project for DApp development, considerations include blockchain network connection, integration of Web3 library, security, integration of front-end frameworks and libraries, testing, documentation, and more.

Choose the right scaffold tool: Selecting a scaffold tool that suits your DApp development is crucial. Some commonly used scaffold tools include Create React App, Vue CLI, etc., which provide default configurations and commands to quickly create and run a basic DApp project.
Configure blockchain network connection: Depending on the blockchain network used by your DApp, you need to configure the connection to network nodes. Typically, you need to provide the URL, port, and other necessary authentication information for network nodes so that your DApp project can interact with the blockchain network.
Integrate the appropriate Web3 library: In DApp development, you need to use a Web3 library to interact with the blockchain. Depending on the blockchain platform you choose, select the corresponding Web3 library and integrate it into your project. For example, if you are using Ethereum as the underlying blockchain, you can use Web3.js or ethers.js to communicate with Ethereum.
Security considerations: Security is crucial in DApp development. Ensure that your scaffold project includes some common security measures, such as preventing cross-site scripting attacks (XSS), preventing replay attacks, etc. You can use security-related libraries or frameworks, such as the security library provided by OpenZeppelin.
Integrate front-end frameworks and libraries: Choose front-end frameworks and libraries suitable for your DApp project and integrate them into the scaffold project. Common choices include React, Vue, etc. Ensure that your scaffold project has pre-configured these frameworks and libraries and can run smoothly.
Add testing: Adding testing to the scaffold project is crucial. You can choose a suitable testing framework, such as Jest, Mocha, etc., and write unit tests and integration tests to ensure code quality and stability.
Documentation and sample code: Providing detailed documentation and sample code in the scaffold project is very helpful. This can help other developers better understand the project's structure and functionality and quickly get started.

3.2.3 What Are the Scaffolds

When it comes to Ethereum-based web application scaffold, there are several popular choices. Here is an introduction to three main scaffolds, including their main features, characteristics, and a comparison of their pros and cons.

Truffle

Main features: Truffle is a complete Ethereum development framework that provides smart contract compilation, deployment, and testing tools, as well as interaction with the Ethereum network. It also includes a powerful development environment for rapid DApp development and testing.
Characteristics: Truffle provides a set of powerful command-line tools and a development environment to help you manage smart contracts, test, and deploy DApps. It also supports Solidity and JavaScript and has a rich plugin ecosystem.

Embark

Main features: Embark is an Ethereum development framework for building decentralized applications. It provides a set of simple and easy-to-use tools and a command-line interface for developing, testing, and deploying Ethereum smart contracts and DApps.
Characteristics: Embark integrates popular front-end frameworks and libraries, such as React, Vue, etc., making DApp development more convenient. It also provides a powerful plugin system to extend its functionality.

scaffold-eth

Main features: scaffold-eth is an Ethereum-based web application scaffold designed to help developers quickly build Ethereum DApps. It provides a complete set of tools and templates, including front-end interfaces, smart contracts, test scripts, etc.
Characteristics: scaffold-eth uses Hardhat as the smart contract development framework, supports Solidity and TypeScript, and integrates some useful tools and libraries. It provides sample code and tutorials to help developers quickly get started with Ethereum development.

3.3 Front-end Dependencies

In DApp front-end development, it is recommended to use some excellent front-end libraries to reduce workload and improve code delivery quality. Here are some commonly used front-end library recommendations:

wagmi: wagmi provides a rich set of React hooks to complete the process of DApp front-end interaction with contracts. It simplifies the interaction process with contracts, making it easier for developers to handle transactions and contract calls.
useDApp: useDApp is a complex React hooks library that supports multicall.js. It provides convenient features such as handling multiple contract calls, handling Ether transfers, handling EIP-712 signatures, etc.
Siwe: Siwe is a library for implementing wallet login processes. It provides a simple and secure way to implement wallet login and authentication, and integrates with other libraries and tools.
i18next and react-i18next: If you plan to provide multilingual versions and detection, you can use libraries such as i18next and react-i18next. They provide a convenient way to implement multilingual support and allow developers to easily switch and manage different languages in the front-end interface.

4 Middleware Development

In DApp development, middleware typically sits between the front-end application and the blockchain network. It acts as an intermediary layer between the front-end application and the underlying blockchain, used to handle and manage interactions with the blockchain.

4.1 What Functions Do Middleware Have

Middleware can perform the following functions:

Wallet connection and authorization management: Middleware can provide wallet connection functionality, communicate with the user's wallet, and manage the user's authorization status. It can handle wallet connection, login, logout, etc., and manage user authentication and permissions.
Transaction processing and signing: Middleware can handle interactions with contracts and be responsible for constructing transactions, signing them, and sending transactions to the blockchain network. It can manage the lifecycle of transactions, including transaction construction, handling transaction status, event listening, etc.
Data caching and querying: Middleware can cache and query contract data to improve the performance and response speed of the application. It can cache the results of contract view function calls and update and refresh the cache as needed.
Event listening and handling: Middleware can listen to contract events on the blockchain and perform corresponding operations when events are triggered. It can handle event subscription, parsing, and response, and update the state and interface of the front-end application.
Error handling and logging: Middleware can handle errors and exceptions during the process of interacting with the blockchain and provide appropriate error handling and logging mechanisms. It can capture and handle errors and provide useful error information and feedback to the front-end application.

4.2 What Middleware Tools Are Available

In DApp development, you may use the following middleware tools to implement the required functionality. These middleware tools can help simplify the DApp development process and provide functionality for interacting with the blockchain, wallet connection and authorization management, data management, etc. The specific use of these tools depends on your requirements and technology stack.

Web3.js: Web3.js is a JavaScript library for interacting with the Ethereum network. It provides a set of APIs for connecting to the Ethereum network, instantiating contracts, sending transactions, reading contract data, and more.
ethers.js: ethers.js is another popular JavaScript library for interacting with Ethereum. It offers similar functionality to Web3.js, including connecting to the Ethereum network, instantiating contracts, signing transactions, and more.
Metamask: Metamask is a commonly used Ethereum wallet plugin that can be integrated with Web3.js or ethers.js to provide wallet connection and transaction signing functionality for users. Through Metamask, users can authorize DApps to access their wallet addresses and perform transaction operations.
Drizzle: Drizzle is a state management library based on Web3.js, designed specifically for DApp development. It helps manage the state of DApps, interact with smart contracts, and provides convenient features such as automatic event subscription and state updates.
Truffle Suite: Truffle Suite is a development suite for Ethereum DApp development, including the Truffle framework, Ganache private chain, and Drizzle tools. The Truffle framework is used for compiling, deploying, and testing smart contracts, Ganache private chain for local development and debugging, and Drizzle for state management and interaction with smart contracts.
Infura: Infura is a platform that provides Ethereum node hosting services. It helps you easily connect to the Ethereum network and interact with the blockchain through APIs without the need to run and maintain nodes yourself.
IPFS: If your DApp needs to store and retrieve a large amount of files or data, you may consider using IPFS (InterPlanetary File System). IPFS is a peer-to-peer distributed file system that provides high availability and decentralized storage.

4.3 Security Considerations

When interacting with wallets and contracts in DApps, security should always be a top priority. Ensure the use of trusted connectors, verify wallet addresses and transaction status, perform input validation and data encryption, and conduct regular security reviews and vulnerability fixes.

Wallet Connection Security:

Use trusted wallet connectors: Ensure that the wallet connector you use is verified and trusted. Use well-known connectors such as MetaMask, WalletConnect, or Portis, etc.
Limit user authorization: When authorizing wallet connections, ensure that users understand the wallet they are connecting to and only authorize permissions relevant to your application. Avoid requesting unnecessary permissions.
Wallet address verification: Before using a wallet address, it should be validated for correctness. Utilize the API provided by the wallet connector to verify that the user-provided address matches the connected wallet address.

Security of Write Operations with Contracts:

Transaction confirmation and signing: Before performing write operations with contracts, ensure transaction confirmation and signing using a wallet connector. This ensures that the transaction is authorized and signed by the user, providing additional security.
Input validation: Always perform input validation before passing user-provided data to contracts for write operations. Ensure that input data conforms to the expected format and range to prevent issues caused by malicious input.
Transaction status monitoring: After submitting a transaction, monitor the transaction status to ensure it is successfully confirmed and written to the blockchain. This allows for timely updates to the front-end state and feedback to the user.

Wallet Login and Signature Operation Security:

Use wallet-provided signature functionality: For operations requiring signatures (such as login or other sensitive operations), use the signature functionality provided by the wallet instead of passing sensitive data to contracts for processing. This ensures that data is signed and encrypted locally, protecting the user's private key and sensitive information.
Data encryption: When performing wallet login or other sensitive operations, ensure proper encryption of data. Use encryption algorithms and secure protocols to protect the confidentiality of data.

Security Reviews and Vulnerability Fixes:

Security reviews: For applications involving wallet and contract interactions, regular security reviews are necessary. Ensure that your code and application architecture adhere to security best practices and assess and fix potential vulnerabilities.
Vulnerability fixes: If security vulnerabilities are discovered or reported, promptly fix and update your application. Timely response and fixing of potential vulnerabilities are important steps in ensuring application security.

5 Smart Contract Deployment

Contract deployment refers to deploying smart contracts to the blockchain network for execution and use on the blockchain.

5.1 Considerations

Smart contract bytecode: The contract bytecode is the machine code generated by compiling the source code of a smart contract. It is the actual executable code of the smart contract used for deployment on the blockchain. The bytecode is a hexadecimal string that represents the logic and functionality of the contract, and it is a core part of executing contract operations on the blockchain.
Gas: On the Ethereum network, every transaction requires a certain amount of gas to execute. Deploying smart contracts is no exception, and you need to provide enough gas to pay for the computational and storage resources required for contract deployment. The amount of gas depends on the complexity and size of the contract, as well as the congestion of the network. You need to set a gas limit, which is the maximum amount of gas allowed to ensure successful contract deployment.
Deployment script or plugin: A deployment script or plugin is a tool used to automate and simplify the contract deployment process. It can be a script file containing the steps and instructions required for deploying contracts, or a plugin integrated into development tools or frameworks, providing convenient deployment functionality. This allows you to automate contract deployment by running the script or using the plugin, reducing the complexity of manual operations.

5.2 Tools for Smart Contract Deployment

You can deploy smart contracts to the blockchain platform using the following tools:

Remix: Remix is an integrated development environment used for developing, deploying, and managing Ethereum smart contracts. You can use Remix to compile and debug smart contracts, and deploy contracts using its user interface. You can find Remix's official website and related documentation at the following links:

Remix Official Website: Remix
Remix Documentation: Remix Documentation

Tenderly: Tenderly is a Web3 development platform that provides debugging, observability, and infrastructure building blocks for developing, testing, monitoring, and operating smart contracts. You can use Tenderly for debugging and monitoring smart contracts. The following are links to Tenderly's official website and related resources:

Tenderly Official Website: Tenderly
Tenderly Documentation: Tenderly Documentation

Hardhat: Hardhat is a development environment for compiling, deploying, testing, and debugging Ethereum software. You can use Hardhat to write deployment scripts and perform deployment operations. The following are links to Hardhat's official website and related resources:

Hardhat Official Website: Hardhat
Hardhat Documentation for Contract Deployment: Contract Deployment Documentation

Truffle: Truffle is a development environment, testing framework, deployment pipeline, and other tools for developing Ethereum smart contracts. You can use Truffle to write deployment scripts and perform deployment operations. The following are links to Truffle's official website and related resources:

Truffle Official Website: Truffle Suite
Truffle Documentation for Network and Application Deployment: Network and Application Deployment Documentation

Thirdweb: Thirdweb is a tool that allows easy deployment of any contract to any EVM-compatible blockchain with a single command. You can find more information about Thirdweb at the following link:

Thirdweb Documentation: Thirdweb Documentation

You need to rigorously test and audit smart contracts before deploying them to the blockchain. If you are interested in smart contract auditing, please contact us, and we will work with you to provide professional auditing services to ensure the security and reliability of your contracts. If smart contracts deployed to the blockchain still encounter issues, they will need to be upgraded.

6 Summary

Building a trustworthy DApp requires a focus on security, stability, and user experience in five key areas: smart contract development, smart contract testing, front-end development, middleware development, and smart contract deployment. Through comprehensive design, testing, and implementation, the reliability and trustworthiness of a DApp in a blockchain environment can be ensured.

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