Why Do Smart Contracts Self-Destruct? Investigating the Selfdestruct Function on Ethereum

The selfdestruct function is provided by Ethereum smart contracts to destroy a contract on the blockchain system. However, it double-edged sword for developers. On one hand, using enables developers remove ( SCs ) from and transfers Ethers when emergency situations happen, e.g., being attacked. other this can increase complexity development open an attack vector attackers. To better understand reasons why SC include or exclude in their contracts, we conducted online survey collect feedback them summarize key reasons. Their shows that 66.67% of will deploy updated after destructing old contract. According information, propose method find self-destructed (also called predecessor contracts) version (successor computing code similarity. By analyzing difference between successor found five led death contracts; two (i.e., Unmatched ERC20 Token Limits Permission might affect life span contracts. We developed tool named LifeScope detect these problems. reports 0 false positives negatives detecting . In terms , achieves 77.89% F-measure 0.8673 AUC average. who functions, suggestions help use functions better.