Visible to the public BitML: A Calculus for Bitcoin Smart Contracts

TitleBitML: A Calculus for Bitcoin Smart Contracts
Publication TypeConference Paper
Year of Publication2018
AuthorsBartoletti, Massimo, Zunino, Roberto
Conference NameProceedings of the 2018 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security
PublisherACM
Conference LocationNew York, NY, USA
ISBN Number978-1-4503-5693-0
Keywordsbitcoin, bitcoin security, Human Behavior, process calculi, pubcrawl, Scalability, smart contracts
AbstractWe introduce BitML, a domain-specific language for specifying contracts that regulate transfers of bitcoins among participants, without relying on trusted intermediaries. We define a symbolic and a computational model for reasoning about BitML security. In the symbolic model, participants act according to the semantics of BitML, while in the computational model they exchange bitstrings, and read/append transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain. A compiler is provided to translate contracts into standard Bitcoin transactions. Participants can execute a contract by appending these transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain, according to their strategies. We prove the correctness of our compiler, showing that computational attacks on compiled contracts are also observable in the symbolic model.
URLhttp://doi.acm.org/10.1145/3243734.3243795
DOI10.1145/3243734.3243795
Citation Keybartoletti_bitml:_2018