SolQDebug: Debug Solidity Quickly for Interactive Immediacy in Smart ContractDevelopment

SolQDebug: Debug Solidity Quickly for Interactive Immediacy in Smart ContractDevelopment | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article SolQDebug: Debug Solidity Quickly for Interactive Immediacy in Smart ContractDevelopment Inseong Jeon, Sundeuk Kim, Hyunwoo Kim, Hoh Peter In This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8077153/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 9 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract As Solidity becomes the dominant language for blockchain smart contracts, efficient debugging grows increasingly critical. However, current Solidity debugging remains inefficient: developers must compile, deploy, set up transactions, and step through execution line-by-line to examine each variable. This process is too slow for practical use. To address this challenge, this paper presented SolQDebug, the first interactive source-level debugger for Solidity that delivered millisecond feedback directly on source code. Developers specify input value ranges through annotations and compare them against abstract interpretation results, thereby enabling exploration of contract behavior across multiple execution paths. SolQDebug was evaluated on 30 real-world functions from DAppSCAN, achieving 350$\times$ faster debugging (0.15s vs. 53s per function) than Remix IDE. The evaluation provided debugging insights: overlapping annotation patterns improved precision in most Solidity debugging scenarios, while analysis of diverse loop patterns demonstrated improved convergence while preserving soundness guarantees. These results demonstrated that SolQDebug enabled interactive debugging for Solidity development. Smart Contract Development Solidity Debugging Abstract Interpretation Incremental Analysis Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 04 Jan, 2026 Reviews received at journal 29 Dec, 2025 Reviews received at journal 28 Dec, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 15 Dec, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 25 Nov, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 23 Nov, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 11 Nov, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 11 Nov, 2025 First submitted to journal 10 Nov, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8077153","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":555577148,"identity":"5e69e05f-93f7-4f57-b2ae-a9c2a6f98036","order_by":0,"name":"Inseong Jeon","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Korea University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Inseong","middleName":"","lastName":"Jeon","suffix":""},{"id":555577149,"identity":"c2e4acbb-320f-4525-8a28-4893f841ad24","order_by":1,"name":"Sundeuk Kim","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Korea University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Sundeuk","middleName":"","lastName":"Kim","suffix":""},{"id":555577150,"identity":"06edb067-434e-4d48-8a72-ed49764c2a0d","order_by":2,"name":"Hyunwoo Kim","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Korea University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Hyunwoo","middleName":"","lastName":"Kim","suffix":""},{"id":555577151,"identity":"a2f0da7c-284d-4035-993b-fc4f0b9c779a","order_by":3,"name":"Hoh Peter In","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAxklEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACAwYeBoYEBhsDuIgEkVrSSNXCwHCYBC3m7L0HGB7uOG/ML3344AeGGjsGydkH8Gux7DmXwJB45raZZF9asgTDsWQGab4EAg67kWPAkNh228bgDI+BBAPbAQY5HkJ+gWg5B9TC//kHwz/itRwwA9rCJsHYdoBBmqCWM2dAWpKNJXvYzCwS+5J5JHsIaTneY8D4s83OsJ+H+fGND9/s5CTOENACBOw/4MwEBgZCzhoFo2AUjIJRQAwAAAQKOZbjkOIEAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Korea University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Hoh","middleName":"Peter","lastName":"In","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-11-10 12:38:37","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8077153/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8077153/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":97852543,"identity":"8d31152b-fe17-4a17-a488-03e6067091c6","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-12-10 07:10:19","extension":"json","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":5908,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"89f4cb9c19ee4fea83c15bf6452299da.json","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8077153/v1/3ba1e06ac113fd1b465d83a1.json"},{"id":98421042,"identity":"046be6e7-efed-483f-895b-2d6f3ea95d6a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-12-17 16:22:47","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":2835086,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"SolQDebugDebugSolidityQuicklyforInteractiveImmediacyinSmartContractDevelopment.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8077153/v1_covered_629671b9-6f44-4558-a412-3238e2907d2f.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"SolQDebug: Debug Solidity Quickly for Interactive Immediacy in Smart ContractDevelopment","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":true,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"automated-software-engineering","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"ause","sideBox":"Learn more about [Automated Software Engineering](http://link.springer.com/journal/10515)","snPcode":"10515","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/10515/3","title":"Automated Software Engineering","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"Smart Contract Development, Solidity, Debugging, Abstract Interpretation, Incremental Analysis","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8077153/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8077153/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"As Solidity becomes the dominant language for blockchain smart contracts, efficient debugging grows increasingly critical. 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