Upcoming paper: BitML: a calculus for Bitcoin smart contracts

Post date: 24-Jul-2018 04:58:29

Upcoming paper (to be presented at ACM CCS 2018)

BitML: a calculus for Bitcoin smart contracts

Massimo Bartoletti and Roberto Zunino

Abstract. We 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 to compiled contracts are also observable in the symbolic model.