A Simulation Engine for Evaluating Smart Contract Based Applications Sustainability

Abstract

Distributed Ledger Technology can be a key component in improving the interoperability, security, and privacy of many application scenarios, including cyber-physical systems. Moreover, smart contracts integration could unlock novel capabilities and use cases impossible in a traditional system. However, this integration should not degrade the overall system scalability. This is why it is important to have sound tools and methodologies to properly evaluate the sustainability of smart contract based applications deployed on Distributed Ledgers. This is why, in this paper we present a simulation engine able to estimate the cost over time of a smart contracts based application. Our proposal leverages a parametrized simulation environment to track a system evolution for long periods of time depending and on the involved entities behaviour. To validate our proposal we have applied it to a novel mutable Non-Fungible-Tokens proposal and evaluated its sustainability in three different scenarios.