Blockchain Oriented Software Testing - Challenges and Approaches

The distributed ledger technology presents a very innovative and secure way of managing transactions online. Hailed as one of the greatest inventions after the Internet, blockchain is set to pioneer changes in the way businesses are conducted today through its promise of secure, tamper-proof, peer-to-peer decentralized networks with distributed consensus. These fundamental features built into the very fabric bring in a host of additional dimensions and present greater challenges in their testing. Not only are the technological changes significant, but also significant are changes from a business standpoint. A new wave of blockchain oriented software development is emerging at an unprecedented rate. This places an additional responsibility on the Quality Assurance teams to deliver first-time quality while minimizing the impact of testing on the teams delivery. This paper highlights the challenges currently faced in testing such applications. It also acknowledges the need to devise specialized tools and techniques for blockchain oriented software testing in order to ensure high standards of quality.