iContractBot: A Chatbot for Smart Contracts’ Specification and Code Generation

Abstract

Recently, Blockchain technology adoption has expanded to many application areas due to the evolution of smart contracts. However, developing smart contracts is non-trivial and challenging due to the lack of tools and expertise in this field. A promising solution to overcome this issue is to use Model-Driven Engineering (MDE), however, using models still involves a learning curve and might not be suitable for non-technical users. To tackle this challenge, chatbot or conversational interfaces can be used to assess the non-technical users to specify a smart contract in gradual and interactive manner.In this paper, we propose iContractBot, a chatbot for modeling and developing smart contracts. Moreover, we investigate how to integrate iContractBot with iContractML, a domainspecific modeling language for developing smart contracts, and instantiate intention models from the chatbot. The iContractBot framework provides a domain-specific language (DSL) based on the user intention and performs model-to-text transformation to generate the smart contract code. A smart contract use case is presented to demonstrate how iContractBot can be utilized for creating models and generating the deployment artifacts for smart contracts based on a simple conversation.

Blockchain Application Development Using Model-Driven Engineering and Low-Code Platforms: A Survey

“…Models are translated to DAML, which is compatible with various chains. Based on this language, iContractBot [25] allows the user to specify models conversationally. Another approach targeting multiple chains is the aforementioned Das Contract, in which the behavior of a contract is specified in Blockly.…”

Herramienta Model Driven Engineering destinada a la generación de Contratos Inteligentes para la plataforma de Blockchain Ethereum

“…Asimismo, como ocurre con la mayoría de las tecnologías, existen posibles amenazas a la seguridad, vulnerabilidades y otros problemas asociados con los SC. La redacción de SC seguros y protegidos puede ser extremadamente difícil debido a diversas lógicas comerciales, así como a las vulnerabilidades y limitaciones de la plataforma [8]. Los problemas encontrados en los SC se clasifican dependiendo del mecanismo de consenso utilizado, la calidad del código fuente del contrato, falta de lenguajes de programación estándar, entre otros [9].…”

Blockchain for Healthcare Management Systems: A Survey on Interoperability and Security

“…In turn, as with most technologies, BC is no stranger to potential security threats, vulnerabilities, and other associated problems. One of the main components of BC is SC, in these, several challenges are presented, for example, writing secure SC can be extremely difficult due to various business logic, and limitations of the platform where they are generated [28]. The problems encountered in SC are classified according to the consensus mechanism used, the quality of the SC source code, the lack of standard programming languages, and the logic associated with the programmer, among others [29].…”