14 Search Results for "Li, Liyi"

Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.OPODIS.2025.36
BlindPerm: Efficient MEV Mitigation with an Encrypted Mempool and Permutation

Authors: Alireza Kavousi, Duc V. Le, Philipp Jovanovic, and George Danezis

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 361, 29th International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS 2025)

Abstract
Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) is a crucial challenge in blockchains and cryptocurrencies. A principal countermeasure is using encrypted mempools to hide the transaction payloads until they are committed in a block. However, the existing approaches based on encrypted mempools remain vulnerable to metadata leakage and may not provide sufficient mitigation against block producers due to their sole control in block preparation. In this paper, we propose techniques that utilize randomized permutation on the committed block, offering a multi-layer solution. With a focus on proof-of-stake (PoS) committee-based consensus, we then introduce BlindPerm, a framework that enhances an encrypted mempool with permutation and present various optimizations. Notably, we propose a construction where this enhancement comes at essentially no overhead by piggybacking on the encrypted mempool and without relying on any external entity such as randomness beacon. Further, we illustrate the effectiveness of our solutions by running simulations using historical Ethereum data.
Cite as

Alireza Kavousi, Duc V. Le, Philipp Jovanovic, and George Danezis. BlindPerm: Efficient MEV Mitigation with an Encrypted Mempool and Permutation. In 29th International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 361, pp. 36:1-36:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{kavousi_et_al:LIPIcs.OPODIS.2025.36,
  author =	{Kavousi, Alireza and Le, Duc V. and Jovanovic, Philipp and Danezis, George},
  title =	{{BlindPerm: Efficient MEV Mitigation with an Encrypted Mempool and Permutation}},
  booktitle =	{29th International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS 2025)},
  pages =	{36:1--36:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-409-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{361},
  editor =	{Arusoaie, Andrei and Onica, Emanuel and Spear, Michael and Tucci-Piergiovanni, Sara},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.OPODIS.2025.36},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-252091},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.OPODIS.2025.36},
  annote =	{Keywords: Encrypted mempool, maximal extractable value, distributed systems}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.8
Strategic Analysis of Just-In-Time Liquidity Provision in Concentrated Liquidity Market Makers

Authors: Bruno Llacer Trotti, Weizhao Tang, Rachid El-Azouzi, Giulia Fanti, and Daniel Sadoc Menasché

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 354, 7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025)

Abstract
Liquidity providers (LPs) are essential figures in the operation of automated market makers (AMMs); in exchange for transaction fees, LPs lend the liquidity that allows AMMs to operate. While many prior works have studied the incentive structures of LPs in general, we currently lack a principled understanding of a special class of LPs known as Just-In-Time (JIT) LPs. These are strategic agents who momentarily supply liquidity for a single swap, in an attempt to extract disproportionately high fees relative to the remaining passive LPs. This paper provides the first formal, transaction-level model of JIT liquidity provision for a widespread class of AMMs known as Concentrated Liquidity Market Makers (CLMMs), as seen in Uniswap V3, for instance. We characterize the landscape of price impact and fee allocation in these systems, formulate and analyze a non-linear optimization problem faced by JIT LPs, and prove the existence of an optimal strategy. By fitting our optimal solution for JIT LPs to real-world CLMMs, we observe that in liquidity pools (particularly those with risky assets), there is a significant gap between observed and optimal JIT behavior. Existing JIT LPs often fail to account for price impact; doing so, we estimate they could increase earnings by up to 69% on average over small time windows. We also show that JIT liquidity, when deployed strategically, can improve market efficiency reducing slippage for traders, albeit at the cost of eroding passive LP profits by up to 44% per trade on average.
Cite as

Bruno Llacer Trotti, Weizhao Tang, Rachid El-Azouzi, Giulia Fanti, and Daniel Sadoc Menasché. Strategic Analysis of Just-In-Time Liquidity Provision in Concentrated Liquidity Market Makers. In 7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 354, pp. 8:1-8:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{llacertrotti_et_al:LIPIcs.AFT.2025.8,
  author =	{Llacer Trotti, Bruno and Tang, Weizhao and El-Azouzi, Rachid and Fanti, Giulia and Menasch\'{e}, Daniel Sadoc},
  title =	{{Strategic Analysis of Just-In-Time Liquidity Provision in Concentrated Liquidity Market Makers}},
  booktitle =	{7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025)},
  pages =	{8:1--8:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-400-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{354},
  editor =	{Avarikioti, Zeta and Christin, Nicolas},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.8},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-247278},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.8},
  annote =	{Keywords: Concentrated Liquidity Market Makers, Uniswap, Just-in-Time}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.35
On-Chain Decentralized Learning and Cost-Effective Inference for DeFi Attack Mitigation

Authors: Abdulrahman Alhaidari, Balaji Palanisamy, and Prashant Krishnamurthy

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 354, 7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025)

Abstract
Billions of dollars are lost every year in DeFi platforms by transactions exploiting business logic or accounting vulnerabilities. Existing defenses focus on static code analysis, public mempool screening, attacker contract detection, or trusted off-chain monitors, none of which prevents exploits submitted through private relays or malicious contracts that execute within the same block. We present the first decentralized, fully on-chain learning framework that: (i) performs gas-prohibitive computation on Layer-2 to reduce cost, (ii) propagates verified model updates to Layer-1, and (iii) enables gas-bounded, low-latency inference inside smart contracts. A novel Proof-of-Improvement (PoIm) protocol governs the training process and verifies each decentralized micro update as a self-verifying training transaction. Updates are accepted by PoIm only if they demonstrably improve at least one core metric (e.g., accuracy, F1-score, precision, or recall) on a public benchmark without degrading any of the other core metrics, while adversarial proposals get financially penalized through an adaptable test set for evolving threats. We develop quantization and loop-unrolling techniques that enable inference for logistic regression, SVM, MLPs, CNNs, and gated RNNs (with support for formally verified decision tree inference) within the Ethereum block gas limit, while remaining bit-exact to their off-chain counterparts, formally proven in Z3. We curate 298 unique real-world exploits (2020 - 2025) with 402 exploit transactions across eight EVM chains, collectively responsible for $3.74 B in losses. We demonstrate that on-chain ML governed by PoIm detects previously unseen attacks with over 97% attack detection accuracy and 82.0% F1. A single inference, such as one made via an external call, typically incurs zero cost. Fully on-chain inference consumes 57,603 gas (≈ $0.18) for linear models, 143,647 gas (≈ $0.49) for CNN(F2, K1), and 506,397 gas (≈ $1.77) for CNN(F8, K4) on L1 (e.g., Ethereum). Our results show that practical and continually evolving DeFi defenses can be embedded directly in protocol logic without trusted guardians, and our solution achieves highly cost-effective protection while filling a critical gap between vulnerability scanners and real-time transaction screening.
Cite as

Abdulrahman Alhaidari, Balaji Palanisamy, and Prashant Krishnamurthy. On-Chain Decentralized Learning and Cost-Effective Inference for DeFi Attack Mitigation. In 7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 354, pp. 35:1-35:27, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{alhaidari_et_al:LIPIcs.AFT.2025.35,
  author =	{Alhaidari, Abdulrahman and Palanisamy, Balaji and Krishnamurthy, Prashant},
  title =	{{On-Chain Decentralized Learning and Cost-Effective Inference for DeFi Attack Mitigation}},
  booktitle =	{7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025)},
  pages =	{35:1--35:27},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-400-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{354},
  editor =	{Avarikioti, Zeta and Christin, Nicolas},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.35},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-247548},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.35},
  annote =	{Keywords: DeFi attacks, on-chain machine learning, decentralized learning, real-time defense}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.7
Mechanism Design for Automated Market Makers

Authors: T-H. Hubert Chan, Ke Wu, and Elaine Shi

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 354, 7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025)

Abstract
Blockchains have popularized automated market makers (AMMs), applications that run on a blockchain, maintain a pool of crypto-assets, and execute trades with users governed by some pricing function. AMMs have also introduced a significant challenge known as the Miner Extractable Value (MEV). Specifically, miners who control the contents and sequencing of transactions in a block can extract value by front-running and back-running users' transactions, creating arbitrage opportunities that guarantee them risk-free returns. MEV not only harms ordinary users, but more critically, encourages miners to auction off favorable transaction placements to users and arbitragers. This has fostered a more centralized off-chain eco-system, departing from the decentralized equilibrium originally envisioned for the blockchain infrastructure layer. In this paper, we consider how to design AMM mechanisms that eliminate MEV opportunities. Specifically, we propose a new AMM mechanism that processes all transactions contained within a block according to some pre-defined rules, ensuring that some constant potential function is maintained after processing the batch. We show that our new mechanism satisfies two tiers of guarantees. First, for legacy blockchains where each block is proposed by a single (possibly rotating) miner, we prove that our mechanism satisfies arbitrage resilience, i.e., a miner cannot gain risk-free profit. Second, for blockchains where the block proposal process is decentralized and offers sequencing-fairness, we prove a strictly stronger notion called strategy proofness - roughly speaking, we guarantee that any individual user’s best response is to follow the honest strategy. Our results complement prior works on MEV resilience in the following senses. First, prior works have shown impossibilities to address MEV entirely at the consensus level. Our work demonstrates a new paradigm of mechanism design at the application (i.e., smart contract) layer to ensure provable guarantees of strategy proofness. Second, many works have attempted to augment the underlying consensus protocol with extra properties such as sequencing fairness. While most previous works heuristically argued why these extra properties help to mitigate MEV, our work demonstrates in a mathematically formal manner how to leverage such consensus-level properties to aid the design of strategy-proof mechanisms.
Cite as

T-H. Hubert Chan, Ke Wu, and Elaine Shi. Mechanism Design for Automated Market Makers. In 7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 354, pp. 7:1-7:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{chan_et_al:LIPIcs.AFT.2025.7,
  author =	{Chan, T-H. Hubert and Wu, Ke and Shi, Elaine},
  title =	{{Mechanism Design for Automated Market Makers}},
  booktitle =	{7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025)},
  pages =	{7:1--7:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-400-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{354},
  editor =	{Avarikioti, Zeta and Christin, Nicolas},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.7},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-247265},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.7},
  annote =	{Keywords: Mechanism design, game theory, strategy proof, blockchain}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.27
Unravelling the Probabilistic Forest: Arbitrage in Prediction Markets

Authors: Oriol Saguillo, Vahid Ghafouri, Lucianna Kiffer, and Guillermo Suarez-Tangil

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 354, 7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025)

Abstract
Polymarket is a prediction market platform where users can speculate on future events by trading shares tied to specific outcomes, known as conditions. Each market on Polymarket is associated with a set of one or more such conditions. To ensure proper market resolution, the condition set must be exhaustive - collectively accounting for all possible outcomes - and mutually exclusive - only one condition may resolve as true. Thus, the collective prices (probabilities) of all related outcomes (whether in a condition or market) should be $1, representing a combined probability of 1 of any outcome. Despite this design, Polymarket exhibits cases where dependent assets are mispriced, allowing for purchasing (or selling) a certain outcome for less than (or more than) $1, guaranteeing profit. This phenomenon, known as arbitrage, could enable sophisticated participants to exploit such inconsistencies. In this paper, we conduct an empirical arbitrage analysis on Polymarket data to answer three key questions: (Q1) What conditions give rise to arbitrage? (Q2) Does arbitrage actually occur on Polymarket?, and (Q3) Has anyone exploited these opportunities? A major challenge in analyzing arbitrage between related markets lies in the scalability of comparisons across a large number of markets and conditions, with a naive analysis requiring O(2^{n+m}) comparisons. To overcome this, we employ a heuristic-driven reduction strategy based on timeliness, topical similarity, and combinatorial relationships, further validated by expert input. Our study reveals two distinct forms of arbitrage on Polymarket: Market Rebalancing Arbitrage, which occurs within a single market or condition (intra-market), and Combinatorial Arbitrage, which spans across multiple markets (inter-market). We use on-chain historical order book data to analyze when these types of arbitrage opportunities have existed, and when they have been executed by users. We find a realized estimate of 40 million USD of profit extracted across both types of arbitrage during our measurement period.
Cite as

Oriol Saguillo, Vahid Ghafouri, Lucianna Kiffer, and Guillermo Suarez-Tangil. Unravelling the Probabilistic Forest: Arbitrage in Prediction Markets. In 7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 354, pp. 27:1-27:24, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{saguillo_et_al:LIPIcs.AFT.2025.27,
  author =	{Saguillo, Oriol and Ghafouri, Vahid and Kiffer, Lucianna and Suarez-Tangil, Guillermo},
  title =	{{Unravelling the Probabilistic Forest: Arbitrage in Prediction Markets}},
  booktitle =	{7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025)},
  pages =	{27:1--27:24},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-400-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{354},
  editor =	{Avarikioti, Zeta and Christin, Nicolas},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.27},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-247468},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.27},
  annote =	{Keywords: Prediction Markets, Maximal Extractable Value, Large Language Models}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.28
Optimistic MEV in Ethereum Layer 2s: Why Blockspace Is Always in Demand

Authors: Ozan Solmaz, Lioba Heimbach, Yann Vonlanthen, and Roger Wattenhofer

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 354, 7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025)

Abstract
Layer 2 rollups are rapidly absorbing DeFi activity, securing over $40 billion and accounting for nearly half of Ethereum’s DEX volume by Q1 2025, yet their MEV dynamics remain understudied. We address this gap by defining and quantifying optimistic MEV, a form of speculative, on-chain MEV whose detection and execution logic reside largely on-chain in smart contracts. As a result of their speculative nature and lack of off-chain opportunity verification, optimistic MEV transactions frequently decide not to execute any trades. In this work, we focus on cyclic arbitrage, which we find is predominantly executed as optimistic MEV on Layer 2s. Using our multi-stage identification pipeline on Arbitrum, Base, and Optimism, we show that in Q1 2025, transactions from cyclic arbitrage contracts account for over 50% of on-chain gas on Base and Optimism and 7% on Arbitrum, driven mainly by "interaction" probes (on-chain computations searching for arbitrage). This speculative probing indicates that cyclic arbitrage on Layer 2s is predominantly executed as optimistic MEV and contributes to generally keeping blocks on Base and Optimism persistently full. Despite consuming over half of on-chain gas, these optimistic MEV transactions pay less than one quarter of total gas fees. Cross-network comparison reveals divergent success rates, differing patterns of code reuse, and sensitivity to varying sequencer ordering and block production times. Finally, OLS regressions link optimistic MEV trade count to ETH volatility, retail trading activity, and DEX aggregator usage. Together, these findings show that optimistic MEV has become a major source of persistent spam-like transaction activity on Layer 2s, dominating blockspace with low-value probes and reshaping the composition of on-chain activity.
Cite as

Ozan Solmaz, Lioba Heimbach, Yann Vonlanthen, and Roger Wattenhofer. Optimistic MEV in Ethereum Layer 2s: Why Blockspace Is Always in Demand. In 7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 354, pp. 28:1-28:24, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{solmaz_et_al:LIPIcs.AFT.2025.28,
  author =	{Solmaz, Ozan and Heimbach, Lioba and Vonlanthen, Yann and Wattenhofer, Roger},
  title =	{{Optimistic MEV in Ethereum Layer 2s: Why Blockspace Is Always in Demand}},
  booktitle =	{7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025)},
  pages =	{28:1--28:24},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-400-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{354},
  editor =	{Avarikioti, Zeta and Christin, Nicolas},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.28},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-247479},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.28},
  annote =	{Keywords: blockchain, MEV, Layer 2, Ethereum}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.26
Measuring CEX-DEX Extracted Value and Searcher Profitability: The Darkest of the MEV Dark Forest

Authors: Fei Wu, Danning Sui, Thomas Thiery, and Mallesh Pai

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 354, 7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025)

Abstract
This paper provides a comprehensive empirical analysis of the economics and dynamics behind arbitrages between centralized and decentralized exchanges (CEX-DEX) on Ethereum. We refine heuristics to identify arbitrage transactions from on-chain data and introduce a robust empirical framework to estimate arbitrage revenue without knowing traders' actual behaviors on CEX. Leveraging an extensive dataset spanning 19 months from August 2023 to March 2025, we estimate a total of 233.8M USD extracted by 19 major CEX-DEX searchers from 7,203,560 identified CEX-DEX arbitrages. Our analysis reveals increasing centralization trends as three searchers captured three-quarters of both volume and extracted value. We also demonstrate that searchers' profitability is tied to their integration level with block builders and uncover exclusive searcher-builder relationships and their market impact. Finally, we correct the previously underestimated profitability of block builders who vertically integrate with a searcher. These insights illuminate the darkest corner of the MEV landscape and highlight the critical implications for Ethereum’s decentralization.
Cite as

Fei Wu, Danning Sui, Thomas Thiery, and Mallesh Pai. Measuring CEX-DEX Extracted Value and Searcher Profitability: The Darkest of the MEV Dark Forest. In 7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 354, pp. 26:1-26:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{wu_et_al:LIPIcs.AFT.2025.26,
  author =	{Wu, Fei and Sui, Danning and Thiery, Thomas and Pai, Mallesh},
  title =	{{Measuring CEX-DEX Extracted Value and Searcher Profitability: The Darkest of the MEV Dark Forest}},
  booktitle =	{7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025)},
  pages =	{26:1--26:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-400-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{354},
  editor =	{Avarikioti, Zeta and Christin, Nicolas},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.26},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-247450},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.26},
  annote =	{Keywords: Decentralized Finance, Maximal Extractable Value, CEX-DEX arbitrages}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.85
Cutoff Theorems for the Equivalence of Parameterized Quantum Circuits

Authors: Neil J. Ross and Scott Wesley

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 345, 50th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2025)

Abstract
Many promising quantum algorithms in economics, medical science, and material science rely on circuits that are parameterized by a large number of angles. To ensure that these algorithms are efficient, these parameterized circuits must be heavily optimized. However, most quantum circuit optimizers are not verified, so this procedure is known to be error-prone. For this reason, there is growing interest in the design of equivalence checking algorithms for parameterized quantum circuits. In this paper, we define a generalized class of parameterized circuits with arbitrary rotations and show that this problem is decidable for cyclotomic gate sets. We propose a cutoff-based procedure which reduces the problem of verifying the equivalence of parameterized quantum circuits to the problem of verifying the equivalence of finitely many parameter-free quantum circuits. Because the number of parameter-free circuits grows exponentially with the number of parameters, we also propose a probabilistic variant of the algorithm for cases when the number of parameters is intractably large. We show that our techniques extend to equivalence modulo global phase, and describe an efficient angle sampling procedure for cyclotomic gate sets.
Cite as

Neil J. Ross and Scott Wesley. Cutoff Theorems for the Equivalence of Parameterized Quantum Circuits. In 50th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 345, pp. 85:1-85:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{ross_et_al:LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.85,
  author =	{Ross, Neil J. and Wesley, Scott},
  title =	{{Cutoff Theorems for the Equivalence of Parameterized Quantum Circuits}},
  booktitle =	{50th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2025)},
  pages =	{85:1--85:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-388-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{345},
  editor =	{Gawrychowski, Pawe{\l} and Mazowiecki, Filip and Skrzypczak, Micha{\l}},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.85},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-241921},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.85},
  annote =	{Keywords: Quantum Circuits, Parameterized Equivalence Checking}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/OASIcs.FMBC.2025.3
Formal Verification in Solidity and Move: Insights from a Comparative Analysis

Authors: Massimo Bartoletti, Silvia Crafa, and Enrico Lipparini

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 129, 6th International Workshop on Formal Methods for Blockchains (FMBC 2025)

Abstract
Formal verification plays a crucial role in making smart contracts safer, being able to find bugs or to guarantee their absence, as well as checking whether the business logic is correctly implemented. For Solidity, even though there already exist several mature verification tools, the semantical quirks of the language can make verification quite hard in practice. Move, on the other hand, has been designed with security and verification in mind, and it has been accompanied since its early stages by a formal verification tool, the Move Prover. In this paper, we investigate through a comparative analysis: 1) how the different designs of the two contract languages impact verification, and 2) what is the state-of-the-art of verification tools for the two languages, and how do they compare on three paradigmatic use cases. Our investigation is supported by an open dataset of verification tasks performed in Certora and in the Aptos Move Prover.
Cite as

Massimo Bartoletti, Silvia Crafa, and Enrico Lipparini. Formal Verification in Solidity and Move: Insights from a Comparative Analysis. In 6th International Workshop on Formal Methods for Blockchains (FMBC 2025). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 129, pp. 3:1-3:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{bartoletti_et_al:OASIcs.FMBC.2025.3,
  author =	{Bartoletti, Massimo and Crafa, Silvia and Lipparini, Enrico},
  title =	{{Formal Verification in Solidity and Move: Insights from a Comparative Analysis}},
  booktitle =	{6th International Workshop on Formal Methods for Blockchains (FMBC 2025)},
  pages =	{3:1--3:18},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-371-3},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{129},
  editor =	{Marmsoler, Diego and Xu, Meng},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.FMBC.2025.3},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-230302},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.FMBC.2025.3},
  annote =	{Keywords: Smart contracts, Solidity, Move, Verification, Blockchain}
}
Document
Tool Paper
DOI: 10.4230/OASIcs.FMBC.2025.14
Scar: Verification-Based Development of Smart Contracts (Tool Paper)

Authors: Jonas Schiffl and Bernhard Beckert

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 129, 6th International Workshop on Formal Methods for Blockchains (FMBC 2025)

Abstract
Compared to other kinds of computer programs, smart contracts have some unique characteristics, e.g., immutability, and the public availability of source code. This means that any vulnerability has a large probability of being exploited. Since smart contracts cannot be patched, it is very important that smart contracts are correct and secure upon deployment. While much research has been invested in this goal, smart contract correctness and security remains a challenging problem. In this paper, we present the Scar approach for model-driven development of correct and secure smart contract applications. Before implementing an application, smart contract developers first describe it in terms of an intuitive, platform-agnostic metamodel. Within this model, they can also specify high-level security and behavioral correctness properties, and check whether the model contains any inconsistencies. Finally, a combination of code generation, static analyses, and formal verification of automatically generated formal annotations leads to an implementation that is correct and secure w.r.t. the initial model.
Cite as

Jonas Schiffl and Bernhard Beckert. Scar: Verification-Based Development of Smart Contracts (Tool Paper). In 6th International Workshop on Formal Methods for Blockchains (FMBC 2025). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 129, pp. 14:1-14:13, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{schiffl_et_al:OASIcs.FMBC.2025.14,
  author =	{Schiffl, Jonas and Beckert, Bernhard},
  title =	{{Scar: Verification-Based Development of Smart Contracts}},
  booktitle =	{6th International Workshop on Formal Methods for Blockchains (FMBC 2025)},
  pages =	{14:1--14:13},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-371-3},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{129},
  editor =	{Marmsoler, Diego and Xu, Meng},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.FMBC.2025.14},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-230410},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.FMBC.2025.14},
  annote =	{Keywords: Smart Contracts, Formal Verification, Security, Safety and Liveness}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2024.24
Qafny: A Quantum-Program Verifier

Authors: Liyi Li, Mingwei Zhu, Rance Cleaveland, Alexander Nicolellis, Yi Lee, Le Chang, and Xiaodi Wu

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 313, 38th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2024)

Abstract
Because of the probabilistic/nondeterministic behavior of quantum programs, it is highly advisable to verify them formally to ensure that they correctly implement their specifications. Formal verification, however, also traditionally requires significant effort. To address this challenge, we present Qafny, an automated proof system based on the program verifier Dafny and designed for verifying quantum programs. At its core, Qafny uses a type-guided quantum proof system that translates quantum operations to classical array operations modeled within a classical separation logic framework. We prove the soundness and completeness of our proof system and implement a prototype compiler that transforms Qafny programs and specifications into Dafny for automated verification purposes. We then illustrate the utility of Qafny’s automated capabilities in efficiently verifying important quantum algorithms, including quantum-walk algorithms, Grover’s algorithm, and Shor’s algorithm.
Cite as

Liyi Li, Mingwei Zhu, Rance Cleaveland, Alexander Nicolellis, Yi Lee, Le Chang, and Xiaodi Wu. Qafny: A Quantum-Program Verifier. In 38th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 313, pp. 24:1-24:31, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{li_et_al:LIPIcs.ECOOP.2024.24,
  author =	{Li, Liyi and Zhu, Mingwei and Cleaveland, Rance and Nicolellis, Alexander and Lee, Yi and Chang, Le and Wu, Xiaodi},
  title =	{{Qafny: A Quantum-Program Verifier}},
  booktitle =	{38th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2024)},
  pages =	{24:1--24:31},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-341-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{313},
  editor =	{Aldrich, Jonathan and Salvaneschi, Guido},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2024.24},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-208735},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2024.24},
  annote =	{Keywords: Quantum Computing, Automated Verification, Separation Logic}
}
Document
Artifact
DOI: 10.4230/DARTS.10.2.12
Qafny: A Quantum-Program Verifier (Artifact)

Authors: Liyi Li, Mingwei Zhu, Rance Cleaveland, Alexander Nicolellis, Yi Lee, Le Chang, and Xiaodi Wu

Published in: DARTS, Volume 10, Issue 2, Special Issue of the 38th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2024)

Abstract
This artifact contains the Coq theory files for the Qafny proof system, including the formalism of the Qafny syntax, semantics, type system, and proof system, with the theorem proofs of type soundness, proof system soundness and completeness. It also contains a the compiled Dafny example programs generated from our Qafny-to-Dafny prototype compiler. These example programs serve as the validations of our Qafny-to-Dafny prototype compiler mechanism. The main work is introduced in the Qafny paper, which develops a separation logic style verification framework for quantum programs.
Cite as

Liyi Li, Mingwei Zhu, Rance Cleaveland, Alexander Nicolellis, Yi Lee, Le Chang, and Xiaodi Wu. Qafny: A Quantum-Program Verifier (Artifact). In Special Issue of the 38th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2024). Dagstuhl Artifacts Series (DARTS), Volume 10, Issue 2, pp. 12:1-12:2, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@Article{li_et_al:DARTS.10.2.12,
  author =	{Li, Liyi and Zhu, Mingwei and Cleaveland, Rance and Nicolellis, Alexander and Lee, Yi and Chang, Le and Wu, Xiaodi},
  title =	{{Qafny: A Quantum-Program Verifier (Artifact)}},
  pages =	{12:1--12:2},
  journal =	{Dagstuhl Artifacts Series},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-342-3},
  ISSN =	{2509-8195},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{10},
  number =	{2},
  editor =	{Li, Liyi and Zhu, Mingwei and Cleaveland, Rance and Nicolellis, Alexander and Lee, Yi and Chang, Le and Wu, Xiaodi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DARTS.10.2.12},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-209104},
  doi =		{10.4230/DARTS.10.2.12},
  annote =	{Keywords: Quantum Computing, Automated Verification, Separation Logic}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITP.2021.21
Proving Quantum Programs Correct

Authors: Kesha Hietala, Robert Rand, Shih-Han Hung, Liyi Li, and Michael Hicks

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 193, 12th International Conference on Interactive Theorem Proving (ITP 2021)

Abstract
As quantum computing progresses steadily from theory into practice, programmers will face a common problem: How can they be sure that their code does what they intend it to do? This paper presents encouraging results in the application of mechanized proof to the domain of quantum programming in the context of the SQIR development. It verifies the correctness of a range of a quantum algorithms including Grover’s algorithm and quantum phase estimation, a key component of Shor’s algorithm. In doing so, it aims to highlight both the successes and challenges of formal verification in the quantum context and motivate the theorem proving community to target quantum computing as an application domain.
Cite as

Kesha Hietala, Robert Rand, Shih-Han Hung, Liyi Li, and Michael Hicks. Proving Quantum Programs Correct. In 12th International Conference on Interactive Theorem Proving (ITP 2021). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 193, pp. 21:1-21:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2021)

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@InProceedings{hietala_et_al:LIPIcs.ITP.2021.21,
  author =	{Hietala, Kesha and Rand, Robert and Hung, Shih-Han and Li, Liyi and Hicks, Michael},
  title =	{{Proving Quantum Programs Correct}},
  booktitle =	{12th International Conference on Interactive Theorem Proving (ITP 2021)},
  pages =	{21:1--21:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-188-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2021},
  volume =	{193},
  editor =	{Cohen, Liron and Kaliszyk, Cezary},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITP.2021.21},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-139160},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITP.2021.21},
  annote =	{Keywords: Formal Verification, Quantum Computing, Proof Engineering}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2020.7
K-LLVM: A Relatively Complete Semantics of LLVM IR

Authors: Liyi Li and Elsa L. Gunter

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 166, 34th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2020)

Abstract
LLVM [Lattner and Adve, 2004] is designed for the compile-time, link-time and run-time optimization of programs written in various programming languages. The language supported by LLVM targeted by modern compilers is LLVM IR [llvm.org, 2018]. In this paper we define K-LLVM, a reference semantics for LLVM IR. To the best of our knowledge, K-LLVM is the most complete formal LLVM IR semantics to date, including all LLVM IR instructions, intrinsic functions in the LLVM documentation and Standard-C library functions that are necessary to execute many LLVM IR programs. Additionally, K-LLVM formulates an abstract machine that executes all LLVM IR instructions. The machine allows to describe our formal semantics in terms of simulating a conceptual virtual machine that runs LLVM IR programs, including non-deterministic programs. Even though the K-LLVM memory model in this paper is assumed to be a sequentially consistent memory model and does not include all LLVM concurrency memory behaviors, the design of K-LLVM’s data layout allows the K-LLVM abstract machine to execute some LLVM IR programs that previous semantics did not cover, such as the full range of LLVM IR behaviors for the interaction among LLVM IR casting, pointer arithmetic, memory operations and some memory flags (e.g. readonly) of function headers. Additionally, the memory model is modularized in a manner that supports investigating other memory models. To validate K-LLVM, we have implemented it in 𝕂 [Roşu, 2016], which generated an interpreter for LLVM IR. Using this, we ran tests including 1,385 unit test programs and around 3,000 concrete LLVM IR programs, and K-LLVM passed all of them.
Cite as

Liyi Li and Elsa L. Gunter. K-LLVM: A Relatively Complete Semantics of LLVM IR. In 34th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 166, pp. 7:1-7:29, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)

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@InProceedings{li_et_al:LIPIcs.ECOOP.2020.7,
  author =	{Li, Liyi and Gunter, Elsa L.},
  title =	{{K-LLVM: A Relatively Complete Semantics of LLVM IR}},
  booktitle =	{34th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2020)},
  pages =	{7:1--7:29},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-154-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{166},
  editor =	{Hirschfeld, Robert and Pape, Tobias},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2020.7},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-131649},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2020.7},
  annote =	{Keywords: LLVM, formal semantics, K framework, memory model, abstract machine}
}
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