BitMLx: Cross-chain Smart Contracts for Bitcoin-style Cryptocurrencies

Location: TU Wien, FAV Hörsaal 2 (Favoritenstr. 9-11, Erdgeschoß, Room HEEG03)
Date & Time: 2024-08-28; 10:00 - 11:00

Abstract: The limited scripting capabilities in Bitcoin-like cryptocurrencies have forced implementations of smart contracts as multi-party cryptographic protocols. To streamline this process, the BitML language allows for defining simple smart contracts and automatically translates them into protocols over transactions in the respective currency. However, BitML is limited to contracts operating upon the same cryptocurrency whereas many interesting financial applications involve assets on different blockchains, inducing more complicated cryptographic protocols for enforcing synchronous execution across these systems. In this talk, we introduce BitMLx, an extension of BitML that provides a high-level programming language to implement smart contracts executing synchronously on any two Bitcoin-like cryptocurrencies. We show a compiler from BitMLx to two BitML contracts and discuss how we can guarantee that participants executing the latter contracts end up at least as good as in the corresponding execution of the former BitMLx contract.

Bio: Federico Badaloni is a PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy, where he has been a part of the Heinz Nixdorf Research Group for Cryptocurrencies and Smart Contracts since March 2023. He completed his degree in Computer Science (“Licenciatura en Ciencias de la Computación”) at the National University of Rosario in Argentina in February 2022. His thesis focused on game theory, specifically studying the Fictitious Play algorithm for finding Nash equilibria. His current research focuses on the expressivity of programming languages for smart contracts on non-Turing-complete platforms. He is actively working on extensions and portability for the BitML language. In addition to this, he has a strong interest in applying smart contracts to the administration of collective commons, cooperatives, planned economies, and other tools that promote solidarity and horizontal collaboration without intermediaries.