207 research outputs found
An empirical analysis of smart contracts: platforms, applications, and design patterns
Smart contracts are computer programs that can be consistently executed by a
network of mutually distrusting nodes, without the arbitration of a trusted
authority. Because of their resilience to tampering, smart contracts are
appealing in many scenarios, especially in those which require transfers of
money to respect certain agreed rules (like in financial services and in
games). Over the last few years many platforms for smart contracts have been
proposed, and some of them have been actually implemented and used. We study
how the notion of smart contract is interpreted in some of these platforms.
Focussing on the two most widespread ones, Bitcoin and Ethereum, we quantify
the usage of smart contracts in relation to their application domain. We also
analyse the most common programming patterns in Ethereum, where the source code
of smart contracts is available.Comment: WTSC 201
A Logic of Blockchain Updates
Blockchains are distributed data structures that are used to achieve
consensus in systems for cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin) or smart contracts
(like Ethereum). Although blockchains gained a lot of popularity recently,
there is no logic-based model for blockchains available. We introduce BCL, a
dynamic logic to reason about blockchain updates, and show that BCL is sound
and complete with respect to a simple blockchain model
Decentralization in Bitcoin and Ethereum Networks
Blockchain-based cryptocurrencies have demonstrated how to securely implement
traditionally centralized systems, such as currencies, in a decentralized
fashion. However, there have been few measurement studies on the level of
decentralization they achieve in practice. We present a measurement study on
various decentralization metrics of two of the leading cryptocurrencies with
the largest market capitalization and user base, Bitcoin and Ethereum. We
investigate the extent of decentralization by measuring the network resources
of nodes and the interconnection among them, the protocol requirements
affecting the operation of nodes, and the robustness of the two systems against
attacks. In particular, we adapted existing internet measurement techniques and
used the Falcon Relay Network as a novel measurement tool to obtain our data.
We discovered that neither Bitcoin nor Ethereum has strictly better properties
than the other. We also provide concrete suggestions for improving both
systems.Comment: Financial Cryptography and Data Security 201
On the conditions for the existence of Perfect Learning and power law in learning from stochastic examples by Ising perceptrons
In a previous letter, we studied learning from stochastic examples by
perceptrons with Ising weights in the framework of statistical mechanics. Under
the one-step replica symmetry breaking ansatz, the behaviours of learning
curves were classified according to some local property of the rules by which
examples were drawn. Further, the conditions for the existence of the Perfect
Learning together with other behaviors of the learning curves were given. In
this paper, we give the detailed derivation about these results and further
argument about the Perfect Learning together with extensive numerical
calculations.Comment: 28 pages, 43 figures. Submitted to J. Phys.
Non-Ergodic Dynamics of the 2D Random-phase Sine-Gordon Model: Applications to Vortex-Glass Arrays and Disordered-Substrate Surfaces
The dynamics of the random-phase sine-Gordon model, which describes 2D
vortex-glass arrays and crystalline surfaces on disordered substrates, is
investigated using the self-consistent Hartree approximation. The
fluctuation-dissipation theorem is violated below the critical temperature T_c
for large time t>t* where t* diverges in the thermodynamic limit. While above
T_c the averaged autocorrelation function diverges as Tln(t), for T<T_c it
approaches a finite value q* proportional to 1/(T_c-T) as q(t) = q* -
c(t/t*)^{-\nu} (for t --> t*) where \nu is a temperature-dependent exponent. On
larger time scales t > t* the dynamics becomes non-ergodic. The static
correlations behave as Tln{x} for T>T_c and for T<T_c when x < \xi* with \xi*
proportional to exp{A/(T_c-T)}. For scales x > \xi*, they behave as (T/m)ln{x}
where m is approximately T/T_c near T_c, in general agreement with the
variational replica-symmetry breaking approach and with recent simulations of
the disordered-substrate surface. For strong- coupling the transition becomes
first-order.Comment: 12 pages in LaTeX, Figures available upon request, NSF-ITP 94-10
On the Unfairness of Blockchain
The success of Bitcoin largely relies on the perception of a fair underlying peer-to-peer protocol: blockchain. Fairness here essentially means that the reward (in bitcoins) given to any participant that helps maintain the consistency of the protocol by mining, is proportional to the computational power devoted by that participant to the mining task. Without such perception of fairness, honest miners might be disincentivized to maintain the protocol, leaving the space for dishonest miners to reach a majority and jeopardize the consistency of the entire system. We prove, in this paper, that blockchain is actually unfair, even in a distributed system of only two honest miners. In a realistic setting where message delivery is not instantaneous, the ratio between the (expected) number of blocks committed by two miners is at least exponential in the product of the message delay and the difference between the two miners' hashrates. To obtain our result, we model the growth of blockchain, which may be of independent interest. We also apply our result to explain recent empirical observations and vulnerabilities
Large times off-equilibrium dynamics of a particle in a random potential
We study the off-equilibrium dynamics of a particle in a general
-dimensional random potential when . We demonstrate the
existence of two asymptotic time regimes: {\it i.} stationary dynamics, {\it
ii.} slow aging dynamics with violation of equilibrium theorems. We derive the
equations obeyed by the slowly varying part of the two-times correlation and
response functions and obtain an analytical solution of these equations. For
short-range correlated potentials we find that: {\it i.} the scaling function
is non analytic at similar times and this behaviour crosses over to
ultrametricity when the correlations become long range, {\it ii.} aging
dynamics persists in the limit of zero confining mass with universal features
for widely separated times. We compare with the numerical solution to the
dynamical equations and generalize the dynamical equations to finite by
extending the variational method to the dynamics.Comment: 70 pages, 7 figures included, uuencoded Z-compressed .tar fil
Competition between glassiness and order in a multi-spin glass
A mean-field multi-spin interaction spin glass model is analyzed in the
presence of a ferromagnetic coupling. The static and dynamical phase diagrams
contain four phases (paramagnet, spin glass, ordinary ferromagnet and glassy
ferromagnet) and exhibit reentrant behavior. The glassy ferromagnet phase has
anomalous dynamical properties. The results are consistent with a
nonequilibrium thermodynamics that has been proposed for glasses.Comment: revised version, 4 pages Revtex, 2 eps-figures. Phys. Rev. E, Rapid
Communication, to appea
Schwinger-Keldysh Approach to Disordered and Interacting Electron Systems: Derivation of Finkelstein's Renormalization Group Equations
We develop a dynamical approach based on the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism to
derive a field-theoretic description of disordered and interacting electron
systems. We calculate within this formalism the perturbative RG equations for
interacting electrons expanded around a diffusive Fermi liquid fixed point, as
obtained originally by Finkelstein using replicas. The major simplifying
feature of this approach, as compared to Finkelstein's is that instead of replicas, we only need to consider N=2 species. We compare the dynamical
Schwinger-Keldysh approach and the replica methods, and we present a simple and
pedagogical RG procedure to obtain Finkelstein's RG equations.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figure
Directed Quantum Chaos
Quantum disordered problems with a direction (imaginary vector-potential) are
discussed and mapped onto a supermatrix sigma-model. It is argued that the
version of the sigma-model may describe a broad class of phenomena that can be
called directed quantum chaos. It is demonstrated by explicit calculations that
these problems are equivalent to problems of theory of random asymmetric or
non-Hermitian matrices. A joint probability of complex eigenvalues is obtained.
The fraction of states with real eigenvalues proves to be always finite for
time reversal invariant systems.Comment: 4 pages, revtex, no figure
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