Related papers: Blockchain-Oriented Software Variant Forks: A Prel…
The fork-based development mechanism provides the flexibility and the unified processes for software teams to collaborate easily in a distributed setting without too much coordination overhead.Currently, multiple social coding platforms…
Many developers have ideas to create blockchain applications but do not know where to begin. Often these developers default to using the first blockchain development platform they discover, which may not be the best platform for their…
Forking is a common practice for developers when building upon on already existing projects. These forks create variants, which have a common code base but then evolve the code in different directions, which is specific to that forked…
The notion of software ''fork'' has been shifting over time from the (negative) phenomenon of community disagreements that result in the creation of separate development lines and ultimately software products, to the (positive) practice of…
Blockchain is a distributed ledger technique that guarantees the traceability of transactions. Blockchain is adopted in multiple domains like finance (e.g., cryptocurrency), healthcare, security, and supply chain. In the open-source…
To fork a project is to copy the existing code base and move in a direction different than that of the erstwhile project leadership. Forking provides a rapid way to address new requirements by adapting an existing solution. However, it can…
Source code repositories allow developers to manage multiple versions (or branches) of a software system. Pull-requests are used to modify a branch, and backporting is a regular activity used to port changes from a current development…
Blockchain, like any other complex technology, needs a strong testing methodology to support its evolution in both research and development contexts. Setting up meaningful tests for permissionless blockchain technology is a notoriously…
The wide success of Bitcoin has led to a huge surge of alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins). Most altcoins essentially fork Bitcoin's code with minor modifications, such as the number of coins to be minted, the block size, and the block…
Web-based hosting services for version control, such as GitHub, have made it easier for people to develop, share, and donate money to software repositories. In this paper, we study the use of Bitcoin to make donations to open source…
Due to the open-source nature of the blockchain ecosystem, it is common for new blockchains to fork or partially reuse the code of classic blockchains. For example, the popular Dogecoin, Litecoin, Binance BSC, and Polygon are all variants…
The blockchain technology has potential applications in various areas such as smart-contracts, Internet of Things (IoT), land registry, supply chain management, storing medical data, and identity management. Although the Github currently…
Blockchain is a continuously developing technology that has made digital transactions and related computing operations more transparent and secure through globally distributed and decentralized management of states, as well as the strong…
Blockchain systems come with a promise of decentralization that often stumbles on a roadblock when key decisions about modifying the software codebase need to be made. This is attested by the fact that both of the two major…
The Blockchain technology is reshaping finance, economy, money to the extent that its disruptive power is compared to that of the Internet and the Web in their early days. As a result, all the software development revolving around the…
Natural forking in blockchain refers to a phenomenon that there are a set of blocks at one block height at the same time, implying that various nodes have different perspectives of the main chain. Natural forking might give rise to multiple…
The popularity of blockchain technology continues to grow rapidly in both industrial and academic fields. Most studies of blockchain focus on the improvements of security, usability, or efficiency of blockchain protocols, or the…
Blockchain has received expanding interest from various domains. Institutions, enterprises, governments, and agencies are interested in Blockchain potential to augment their software systems. The unique requirements and characteristics of…
Blockchain, as a distributed ledger technology, becomes increasingly popular, especially for enabling valuable cryptocurrencies and smart contracts. However, the blockchain software systems inevitably have many bugs. Although bugs in smart…
Many popular open source projects are owned and driven by vendors, and in today's difficult economic climate, those vendors are under increasing pressure from investors to deliver a strong return on their investments. One response to this…