Who Needs the Most Research Effort? Investigating the Importance of Smart Contract Weaknesses

Smart contracts have witnessed widespread adoption across various industries since the introduction of Ethereum. Also, smart contracts’ vulnerabilities have gradually attracted academic attention, e.g., Oyente was developed to detect security bugs in contracts. However, it remains unclear which smart contract vulnerabilities require more research attention. To fill the gap, we recruit eight researchers to collect 281 Ethereum-related security events from SlowMist and Rekt, and analyze the root causes (e.g., the code weakness) behind each occurrence based on SWC Registry. Our results reveal that only 10 SWC weaknesses lead to security events, causing a total loss of USD 74 Billion. Moreover, Reentrancy exhibits the highest frequency. Our results provide guidance for research efforts allocated in the academic community.