4 Search Results for "Cerone, Andrea"


Document
Formal Specification of the Cardano Blockchain Ledger, Mechanized in Agda

Authors: Andre Knispel, Orestis Melkonian, James Chapman, Alasdair Hill, Joosep Jääger, William DeMeo, and Ulf Norell

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 118, 5th International Workshop on Formal Methods for Blockchains (FMBC 2024)


Abstract
Blockchain systems comprise critical software that handle substantial monetary funds, rendering them excellent candidates for formal verification. One of their core components is the underlying ledger that does all the accounting: keeping track of transactions and their validity, etc. Unfortunately, previous theoretical studies are typically confined to an idealized setting, while specifications for real implementations are scarce; either the functionality is directly implemented without a proper specification, or at best an informal specification is written on paper. The present work expands beyond prior meta-theoretical investigations of the EUTxO model to encompass the full scale of the Cardano blockchain: our formal specification describes a hierarchy of modular transitions that covers all the intricacies of a realistic blockchain, such as fully expressive smart contracts and decentralized governance. It is mechanized in a proof assistant, thus enjoys a higher standard of rigor: type-checking prevents minor oversights that were frequent in previous informal approaches; key meta-theoretical properties can now be formally proven; it is an executable specification against which the implementation in production is being tested for conformance; and it provides firm foundations for smart contract verification. Apart from a safety net to keep us in check, the formalization also provides a guideline for the ledger design: one informs the other in a symbiotic way, especially in the case of state-of-the-art features like decentralized governance, which is an emerging sub-field of blockchain research that however mandates a more exploratory approach. All the results presented in this paper have been mechanized in the Agda proof assistant and are publicly available. In fact, this document is itself a literate Agda script and all rendered code has been successfully type-checked.

Cite as

Andre Knispel, Orestis Melkonian, James Chapman, Alasdair Hill, Joosep Jääger, William DeMeo, and Ulf Norell. Formal Specification of the Cardano Blockchain Ledger, Mechanized in Agda. In 5th International Workshop on Formal Methods for Blockchains (FMBC 2024). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 118, pp. 2:1-2:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)


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@InProceedings{knispel_et_al:OASIcs.FMBC.2024.2,
  author =	{Knispel, Andre and Melkonian, Orestis and Chapman, James and Hill, Alasdair and J\"{a}\"{a}ger, Joosep and DeMeo, William and Norell, Ulf},
  title =	{{Formal Specification of the Cardano Blockchain Ledger, Mechanized in Agda}},
  booktitle =	{5th International Workshop on Formal Methods for Blockchains (FMBC 2024)},
  pages =	{2:1--2:18},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-317-1},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{118},
  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.2024.2},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-198673},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.FMBC.2024.2},
  annote =	{Keywords: blockchain, distributed ledgers, UTxO, Cardano, formal verification, Agda}
}
Document
Data Consistency in Transactional Storage Systems: A Centralised Semantics

Authors: Shale Xiong, Andrea Cerone, Azalea Raad, and Philippa Gardner

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


Abstract
We introduce an interleaving operational semantics for describing the client-observable behaviour of atomic transactions on distributed key-value stores. Our semantics builds on abstract states comprising centralised, global key-value stores and partial client views. Using our abstract states, we present operational definitions of well-known consistency models in the literature, and prove them to be equivalent to their existing declarative definitions using abstract executions. We explore two applications of our operational framework: 1) verifying that the COPS replicated database and the Clock-SI partitioned database satisfy their consistency models using trace refinement, and 2) proving invariant properties of client programs.

Cite as

Shale Xiong, Andrea Cerone, Azalea Raad, and Philippa Gardner. Data Consistency in Transactional Storage Systems: A Centralised Semantics. In 34th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 166, pp. 21:1-21:31, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)


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@InProceedings{xiong_et_al:LIPIcs.ECOOP.2020.21,
  author =	{Xiong, Shale and Cerone, Andrea and Raad, Azalea and Gardner, Philippa},
  title =	{{Data Consistency in Transactional Storage Systems: A Centralised Semantics}},
  booktitle =	{34th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2020)},
  pages =	{21:1--21:31},
  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.2020.21},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-131782},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2020.21},
  annote =	{Keywords: Operational Semantics, Consistency Models, Transactions, Distributed Key-value Stores}
}
Document
Algebraic Laws for Weak Consistency

Authors: Andrea Cerone, Alexey Gotsman, and Hongseok Yang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 85, 28th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2017)


Abstract
Modern distributed systems often rely on so called weakly consistent databases, which achieve scalability by weakening consistency guarantees of distributed transaction processing. The semantics of such databases have been formalised in two different styles, one based on abstract executions and the other based on dependency graphs. The choice between these styles has been made according to intended applications. The former has been used for specifying and verifying the implementation of the databases, while the latter for proving properties of client programs of the databases. In this paper, we present a set of novel algebraic laws (inequalities) that connect these two styles of specifications. The laws relate binary relations used in a specification based on abstract executions to those used in a specification based on dependency graphs. We then show that this algebraic connection gives rise to so called robustness criteria: conditions which ensure that a client program of a weakly consistent database does not exhibit anomalous behaviours due to weak consistency. These criteria make it easy to reason about these client programs, and may become a basis for dynamic or static program analyses. For a certain class of consistency models specifications, we prove a full abstraction result that connects the two styles of specifications.

Cite as

Andrea Cerone, Alexey Gotsman, and Hongseok Yang. Algebraic Laws for Weak Consistency. In 28th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2017). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 85, pp. 26:1-26:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2017)


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@InProceedings{cerone_et_al:LIPIcs.CONCUR.2017.26,
  author =	{Cerone, Andrea and Gotsman, Alexey and Yang, Hongseok},
  title =	{{Algebraic Laws for Weak Consistency}},
  booktitle =	{28th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2017)},
  pages =	{26:1--26:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-048-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2017},
  volume =	{85},
  editor =	{Meyer, Roland and Nestmann, Uwe},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2017.26},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-77946},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2017.26},
  annote =	{Keywords: Weak Consistency Models, Distributed Databases, Dependency Graphs}
}
Document
A Framework for Transactional Consistency Models with Atomic Visibility

Authors: Andrea Cerone, Giovanni Bernardi, and Alexey Gotsman

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 42, 26th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2015)


Abstract
Modern distributed systems often rely on databases that achieve scalability by providing only weak guarantees about the consistency of distributed transaction processing. The semantics of programs interacting with such a database depends on its consistency model, defining these guarantees. Unfortunately, consistency models are usually stated informally or using disparate formalisms, often tied to the database internals. To deal with this problem, we propose a framework for specifying a variety of consistency models for transactions uniformly and declaratively. Our specifications are given in the style of weak memory models, using structures of events and relations on them. The specifications are particularly concise because they exploit the property of atomic visibility guaranteed by many consistency models: either all or none of the updates by a transaction can be visible to another one. This allows the specifications to abstract from individual events inside transactions. We illustrate the use of our framework by specifying several existing consistency models. To validate our specifications, we prove that they are equivalent to alternative operational ones, given as algorithms closer to actual implementations. Our work provides a rigorous foundation for developing the metatheory of the novel form of concurrency arising in weakly consistent large-scale databases.

Cite as

Andrea Cerone, Giovanni Bernardi, and Alexey Gotsman. A Framework for Transactional Consistency Models with Atomic Visibility. In 26th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2015). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 42, pp. 58-71, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2015)


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@InProceedings{cerone_et_al:LIPIcs.CONCUR.2015.58,
  author =	{Cerone, Andrea and Bernardi, Giovanni and Gotsman, Alexey},
  title =	{{A Framework for Transactional Consistency Models with Atomic Visibility}},
  booktitle =	{26th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2015)},
  pages =	{58--71},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-939897-91-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2015},
  volume =	{42},
  editor =	{Aceto, Luca and de Frutos Escrig, David},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2015.58},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-53756},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2015.58},
  annote =	{Keywords: Replication, Consistency models, Transactions}
}
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