FMitF:Collaborative Research:Track I:Formal Techniques for Monitoring Low-level Cross-chain Functions

区块链是一种分布在计算机网络上的数据结构，通常用于管理加密货币等资产。区块链协议是一种分布式应用程序，它允许相互不信任的参与方通过以安全的方式交易资产而受益。该项目将调查能够对多个区块链进行协调更改的协议的设计、分析和实施。该项目将开发技术，监控器观察正在运行的区块链系统，以检测并对可能威胁协议完整性和安全性的不断变化的条件做出反应。该项目重点研究三个重要的跨链协议：原子交换、离链递归交换和原子事务。这些协议要求底层网络显示某些关键属性，运行时验证有望在监控其运行状况方面发挥主要作用。该项目将研究(1)采用分布式运行时验证的算法和技术如何使跨链协议健壮和有效，以及(2)如何使用分布式计算的经典结果来增强运行时验证算法，以开发适合区块链应用和其他应用的低带宽分布式监控系统。社会将通过更安全和可信的软件和电子商务受益。随着现代社会越来越依赖软件系统进行商业和治理，它越来越容易受到安全漏洞的破坏。更值得信赖的软件将通过更快、更便宜和更简单的电子商务、更便宜和更有效的监管合规以及更透明和可访问的公共记录来提供经济效益。值得信赖的软件将增强个人隐私，使敏感数据仅供授权方访问。真正值得信赖的软件需要将正式方法作为分布式系统设计的核心方面，而不是事后考虑。作为该项目的一部分生成的数据，包括软件构件、论文和报告、实验生成的日志、编程项目、讲座材料和项目网站，将使用参与机构布朗大学和爱荷华州立大学提供的现有IT和数据保护基础设施进行管理。该项目将在BitBucket(www.bitBucket.org)和GitHub(www.giroub.com)维护活跃的存储库。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

A blockchain is a data structure distributed over a network of computers, often used to manage assets such as cryptocurrencies. A blockchain protocols is a distributed application that allows participating parties who do not trust one another to benefit by trading assets in a secure way. The project will investigate the design, analysis, and implementation of protocols capable of making coordinated changes to multiple blockchains. The project will develop techniques where a monitor observes a running system of blockchains to detect and react to changing conditions that might threaten the protocol's integrity and safety.The project focuses on three important cross-chain protocols: atomic swaps, off-chain recurring swaps, and atomic transactions. These protocols require the underlying network to display certain critical properties, and runtime verification is expected to play a prime role in monitoring their health. The project will investigate (1) how algorithms and techniques adapted from distributed runtime verification can make cross-chain protocols robust and effective, and (2) how runtime verification algorithms can be augmented with classic results from distributed computing to develop low-bandwidth distributed monitoring systems appropriate for blockchain applications and beyond.Society will benefit through more secure and trustworthy software and electronic commerce. As modern society becomes increasingly reliant on software systems for commerce and governance, it becomes increasingly vulnerable to disruption from security breaches. More trustworthy software will provide economic benefits through faster, cheaper, and simpler electronic commerce, cheaper and more effective regulatory compliance, and more transparent and accessible public records. Trustworthy software will enhance individual privacy, making sensitive data accessible only to authorized parties. Truly trustworthy software requires making formal methods a core aspect of distributed system design, not an afterthought.Data generated as part of this project, including software artifacts, papers and reports, logs generated by experimentation, programming projects, lecture materials, and the project website, will be managed using existing IT and data-protection infrastructures provided by the participating institutions Brown University and Iowa State University. The project will maintain active repositories in BitBucket (www.bitbucket.org) and GitHub (www.github.com).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.