Research

Peer-to-peer affine commitment using bitcoin

Year 2015
Author Karl Crary, Michael J. Sullivan
Publisher PLDI 2015 Proceedings of the 36th ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation
Link View Research Paper
Categories

Bitcoin / Cryptocurrencies

The power of linear and affine logic lies in their ability to model state change. However, in a trustless, peer-to-peer setting, it is difficult to force principals to commit to state changes. We show how to solve the peer-to-peer affine commitment problem using a generalization of Bitcoin in which transactions deal in types rather than numbers. This has applications to proof-carrying authorization and mechanically executable contracts. Importantly, our system can be—and is—implemented on top of the existing Bitcoin network, so there is no need to recruit computing power to a new protocol.