Reading a smart contract even if you’re non-technical
Reading a smart contract even if you’re non-technical
Smart contracts in web3 remove intermediaries. This is great but also means there is no one verifying or checking that the smart contract does what it is supposed to. This is more relevant than ever following the Opensea phishing attack.
Here’s a quick guide on how you can review an Ethereum smart contract.
Find the token on Etherscan
Every token that you own is available on Etherscan. Find it using the link below on Metamask.
Navigate to the contract
Click on the link below to navigate to the contract.
Etherscan provides the following details for the contract - transactions and contract are the most important.
Check transaction details
Look for anything suspicious. For example, large amounts being transferred to a single address or “chained” transactions.
Check contract functions
The contract tells you the functions can be executed - divided into “read” and “write”.
- Read: functions that can be used to read from a contract. For example, the function below (”totalSupply”) provides the total number of tokens in circulation for this contract.
- Write: functions that can make changes to the contract. For example, the below blacklists a user for a particular contract.
