Foundational Verification of Smart Contracts through Verified Compilation

Vilhelm Sjöberg; Kinnari Dave; Daniel Britten; Maria A Schett; Xinyuan Sun; Qinshi Wang; Sean Noble Anderson; Steve Reeves; Zhong Shao

arXiv · 2405.08348

Foundational Verification of Smart Contracts through Verified Compilation

Vilhelm Sjöberg·Kinnari Dave·Daniel Britten·Maria A Schett·Xinyuan Sun·Qinshi Wang·Sean Noble Anderson·Steve Reeves·Zhong Shao

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Abstract

Programs executed on a blockchain - smart contracts - have high financial stakes; their correctness is crucial. We argue, that this correctness needs to be foundational: correctness needs to be based on the operational semantics of their execution environment. In this work we present a foundational system - the DeepSEA system - targeting the Ethereum blockchain as the largest smart contract platform. The DeepSEA system has a small but sufficiently rich programming language amenable for verification, the DeepSEA language, and a verified DeepSEA compiler. Together they enable true end-to-end verification for smart contracts. We demonstrate usability through two case studies: a realistic contract for Decentralized Finance and contract for crowdfunding.

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BibTeX RIS

Vilhelm Sjöberg, Kinnari Dave, Daniel Britten, Maria A Schett, Xinyuan Sun, Qinshi Wang, Sean Noble Anderson, Steve Reeves, Zhong Shao. 2024-05-14. Foundational Verification of Smart Contracts through Verified Compilation. https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.08348

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