License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY 3.0)
When quoting this document, please refer to the following
DOI: 10.4230/OASIcs.FMBC.2020.9
URN: urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-134226
URL: http://dagstuhl.sunsite.rwth-aachen.de/volltexte/2020/13422/
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Losa, Giuliano ; Dodds, Mike

On the Formal Verification of the Stellar Consensus Protocol

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OASIcs-FMBC-2020-9.pdf (0.4 MB)

Abstract

The Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) is a quorum-based BFT consensus protocol. However, instead of using threshold-based quorums, SCP is permissionless and its quorum system emerges from participants’ self-declared trust relationships. In this paper, we describe the methodology we deploy to formally verify the safety and liveness of SCP for arbitrary but fixed configurations.
The proof uses a combination of Ivy and Isabelle/HOL. In Ivy, we model SCP in first-order logic, and we verify safety and liveness under eventual synchrony. In Isabelle/HOL, we prove the validity of our first-order encoding with respect to a more direct higher-order model. SCP is currently deployed in the Stellar Network, and we believe this is the first mechanized proof of both safety and liveness, specified in LTL, for a deployed BFT protocol.

BibTeX - Entry

@InProceedings{losa_et_al:OASIcs:2020:13422,
  author =	{Giuliano Losa and Mike Dodds},
  title =	{{On the Formal Verification of the Stellar Consensus Protocol}},
  booktitle =	{2nd Workshop on Formal Methods for Blockchains (FMBC 2020)},
  pages =	{9:1--9:9},
  series =	{OpenAccess Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-169-6},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{84},
  editor =	{Bruno Bernardo and Diego Marmsoler},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl--Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2020/13422},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-134226},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.FMBC.2020.9},
  annote =	{Keywords: Consensus, Blockchains, First-Order Logic, Stellar, Ivy Prover, Decidability}
}

Keywords: Consensus, Blockchains, First-Order Logic, Stellar, Ivy Prover, Decidability
Collection: 2nd Workshop on Formal Methods for Blockchains (FMBC 2020)
Issue Date: 2020
Date of publication: 11.12.2020

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