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DOI: 10.4230/OASIcs.FMBC.2020.3

Populating the Peephole Optimizer of a Smart Contract Compiler

Authors: Maria A. Schett and Julian Nagele

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 84, 2nd Workshop on Formal Methods for Blockchains (FMBC 2020)

Abstract

Developing compiler optimizations, especially for new, rapidly evolving smart contract languages, can be onerous and error-prone, but is especially important for smart contracts, where deployment and execution directly translate to monetary cost and which cannot change once deployed. One common optimization technique is the use of peephole optimizations, replacement rules that are applied using pattern-matching. These rules are normally constructed using human expertise, which is both time-consuming and far from systematic in exploring opportunities for optimization. In this work we propose a pipeline to automatically populate the peephole optimizer of a smart contract compiler. We apply superoptimization to an existing code base to obtain sequences of instructions, which can be replaced by cheaper, observationally equivalent instructions. We then generate peephole optimization rules by extracting the underlying patterns of these optimizations. We provide a case study of our approach and a prototype implementation for bytecode of the Ethereum Virtual Machine, the tool ppltr, which combines the superoptimizer ebso and the rule generator sorg. Then we evaluate our approach by generating and applying nearly 1k peephole optimization rules extracted from 2k optimizations obtained from deployed bytecode.

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Maria A. Schett and Julian Nagele. Populating the Peephole Optimizer of a Smart Contract Compiler. In 2nd Workshop on Formal Methods for Blockchains (FMBC 2020). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 84, pp. 3:1-3:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)

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@InProceedings{schett_et_al:OASIcs.FMBC.2020.3,
  author =	{Schett, Maria A. and Nagele, Julian},
  title =	{{Populating the Peephole Optimizer of a Smart Contract Compiler}},
  booktitle =	{2nd Workshop on Formal Methods for Blockchains (FMBC 2020)},
  pages =	{3:1--3:15},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-169-6},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{84},
  editor =	{Bernardo, Bruno and Marmsoler, Diego},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.FMBC.2020.3},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-134169},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.FMBC.2020.3},
  annote =	{Keywords: Compiler Optimizations, Constraint Solving, Ethereum Bytecode}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.OPODIS.2019.5

Deconstructing Stellar Consensus

Authors: Álvaro García-Pérez and Maria A. Schett

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 153, 23rd International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS 2019)

Abstract

Some of the recent blockchain proposals, such as Stellar and Ripple, allow for open membership while using quorum-like structures typical for classical Byzantine consensus with closed membership. This is achieved by constructing quorums in a decentralised way: each participant independently chooses whom to trust, and quorums arise from these individual decisions. Unfortunately, the consensus protocols underlying such blockchains are poorly understood, and their correctness has not been rigorously investigated. In this paper we rigorously prove correct the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP), with our proof giving insights into the protocol structure and its use of lower-level abstractions. To this end, we first propose an abstract version of SCP that uses as a black box Stellar’s federated voting primitive (analogous to reliable Byzantine broadcast), previously investigated by García-Pérez and Gotsman [Álvaro García-Pérez and Alexey Gotsman, 2018]. The abstract consensus protocol highlights a modular structure in Stellar and can be proved correct by reusing the previous results on federated voting. However, it is unsuited for realistic implementations, since its processes maintain infinite state. We thus establish a refinement between the abstract protocol and the concrete SCP that uses only finite state, thereby carrying over the result about the correctness of former to the latter. Our results help establish the theoretical foundations of decentralised blockchains like Stellar and gain confidence in their correctness.

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Álvaro García-Pérez and Maria A. Schett. Deconstructing Stellar Consensus. In 23rd International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS 2019). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 153, pp. 5:1-5:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)

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@InProceedings{garciaperez_et_al:LIPIcs.OPODIS.2019.5,
  author =	{Garc{\'\i}a-P\'{e}rez, \'{A}lvaro and Schett, Maria A.},
  title =	{{Deconstructing Stellar Consensus}},
  booktitle =	{23rd International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS 2019)},
  pages =	{5:1--5:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-133-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{153},
  editor =	{Felber, Pascal and Friedman, Roy and Gilbert, Seth and Miller, Avery},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.OPODIS.2019.5},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-117910},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.OPODIS.2019.5},
  annote =	{Keywords: Blockchain, Consensus protocol, Stellar, Byzantine quorum systems}
}

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Documents authored by Schett, Maria A.

Populating the Peephole Optimizer of a Smart Contract Compiler

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Deconstructing Stellar Consensus

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