Neuroscience

Smart contract

Public relations

Computer security

Security awareness

Blockchain

Computer science

Network security policy

Business

Internet privacy

Psychology

Political science

Critical security studies

Information security

Artificial intelligence

Perspective (graphical)

Perception

Security service

Smart contracts have been plagued by security incidents, which resulted in substantial financial losses. Given numerous research efforts in addressing the security issues of smart contracts, we wondered how software practitioners build security into smart contracts in practice. We performed a mixture of qualitative and quantitative studies with 13 interviewees and 156 survey respondents from 35 countries across six continents to understand practitioners' perceptions and practices on smart contract security. Our study uncovers practitioners' motivations and deterrents of smart contract security, as well as how security efforts and strategies fit into the development lifecycle. We also find that blockchain platforms have a statistically significant impact on practitioners' security perceptions and practices of smart contract development. Based on our findings, we highlight future research directions and provide recommendations for practitioners.

Smart Contract Security: A Practitioners' Perspective