Computer Laboratory

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Welcome to the TESCON project

  • Project full name: Tools for Enforcement of Smart CONtracts
  • Knowledge Transfer Fellow: Carlos Molina-Jimenez
  • Principal Investigator: Jon Crowcroft
  • Host: HAT Community Foundation
  • Grant: RG90413 NRAG/536
  • Duration: Feb 2018--Dec 2018
  • Web-page

TESCON

TESCON is a collaborative project between the Computer Laboratory of the University of Cambridge and the HAT Community Foundation.

This page will be used as a blog space to report the development of the project as estipulated in the grant application.

HAT Community Foundation

The HAT Community Foundation is a non-profit company limited by guarantee based in Barton, Cambridge. Is an SME created to promote and implement technology to help individuals trade their personal data.

Aim of the project

The main aim of the project is the industrial evaluation of the tools (after alignment with a leading blockchain platform) for the enforcement of smart contracts.

Precisely, the aim is to build a hybrid architecture composed of off-blockchain smart contracts (deployed on our contract compliance checker) and smart contracts running on--blockchains (for example, on Ethereum).

Potential applications

There is a large range of potential applications of an hybrid architecture like this. For example, the off-blockchain contract compliance checker can be used for offering several off-blockchain services to on--blockchain smart contracts: computation, data storage, data provision, event notification, trust and monitoring/enforcement of polices and regulations.

The software is available from the TECOmate repository and the contraval repository.

Results

  • 10 Feb 2018: The CCC (Contract Compliance Checker) tool upgraded:
    The CCC tool has been upgraded from version 1.1 (available from the Git conch repository to version 1.2 which is available from the TECOmate repository
  • 15 Feb 2018: Users guide of the CCC tool produced:
    The Users Guide version 1.2 is available from Git and details the installation procedure.
  • 20 Feb 2018: Preliminary scenario identified:
    A preliminary use case scenario to examine potential integration architectures of the Contract Compliance Checker and Ethereum has been identified. It is is inspired on the the DataBuyer portal of HAT Community Foundation and involves an individual selling her personal to an data buyer.
  • 05 Mar 2018: Experimental blockchain platform selected:
    A blockchain platform to be used in the integration has been indentified. I have opted for Ethereum for the following reasons: among the leading blockchain Ethereum is one of the most matures and well documented, more importantly, it supports Turing complete language for writing smart contracts, namely, Solidity
  • 20 Mar 2018: Integration architecture designed:
    I have designed an architecture for a potential intehration of the Contract Compliance Checker and Ethereum.
  • 15 Apr 2018: Technical report produced:
    The architecture is documented in the technical report On and Off-Blockchain Enforcement Of Smart Contracts. The central idea is to use the Contract Compliance Checker as a component of a hybrid architecture that conducts on-blockchain and off-blockchain contract enforcement.
    On-blockchain enforcement is conducted by a smart contract running on Ethereum while off-blockchain enforcement is conducted on a complementary smart contract running on the Contract Compliance Checker.
    The Contract Compliance Checher is used to address scalability, response time, consensus latency and other issues that aflict trasactions executed on-blockchain.
    I have been in close collaboration with collegues from the School of Computing Science of University of Newcastle. I acknowledge their contribution.
  • 16 May 2018: Architecture presented at Univ. of Central Asia:
    I joined a research delegation to University of Central Asia, Bishkek and delivered a presentation discussing the architecture designed in the TESCON project and potential development directions: On Potential Research Directions on Blockchain and Smart Contracts.
  • 18 May 2018: Application scenario presented at Univ. of Central Asia:
    I joined a research delegation to University of Central Asia, Bishkek and delivered a presentation on the potential use of smart contracts and blockchains in the creation of an indelible repository for storing certificates issued by the School of Professional and Continuing Education of the University of Central Asia: On the use of Blockchain and Smart Contracts in the Creation of Indelible University Certificates.
    They expressed interest in securing for funds to finance a join effort between University of Central Asia and University of Cambridge to implement the system.
  • 18 Jun 2018: Implementation architecture presented to a delegation of the Chilean Club De Innovacion :
    In response to an invitation by Camnexus , I presented An Architecture that Addresses Scalability and other Issues of Smart Contracts and Blockchains: Research at Cambridge Computer Lab. to a delegation of executives and investors from the Chilean Club de Innovacion.
    Discussions of the architecture with some members of the Clud De Innovacion continue over the email. This might lead to formal collaboration to enhance the technology and potential adoption.
  • 27 Jun 2018: Paper accepted at FPDAPP Workshop:
    On and Off-Blockchain Enforcement Of Smart Contracts has been accepted for publications at The International Workshop on Future Perspective of Decentralized Applications (FPDAPP) to take place in Turin, Italy on 28 of Aug 2018.
  • 25 Jul 2018: EPROMELA tool upgraded:
    The contraval repository that hosts the EPROMELA tool has been upgraded to mechanically generate execution sequences. The new features consist of:
    1. a new and more substantial example: datasellersmartcontract.
    2. a unix shell script: pro2seq
    3. a python script: parser-filtering.py
    The shell and python scripts can assist users in generating execution sequences (use cases) for testing smart contracts deployed in the architecture that I am developing---composed of a combination of the the ccc tool and the ethereum blockchain platform. The example can be run to demonstrate the EPROMELA tool.
  • 3 Jul 2018: Users guide of EPROMELA tool upgraded:
    The directions to use the contraval tool are provided in UserGuide_v1.2.
  • 12 Jul 2018: Architecture discussed with executives from Cleantech and Zellabox:
    I had a technical discussion with executives from Cambridge Cleantech and Zellabox to discuss my smart and blockchain technologies to consider its potential usage withing their applications and collaborations.
  • 19 Jul 2018: Examples of smart contracts in EPROMELA uploaded:
    I uploaded more demanding examples of smart contracts written in epromela along with a linux shell script, a Python script and documentation. The aim is to help developers to download the software and run the code to replicate the experiments, for example, to generate execution sequences for testing smart contract implementations.
  • 27 Jul 2018: Technical report on implementation produced:
    I have produced, in collaboration with HAT, the technical report Implementation of Smart Contracts Using Hybrid Architectures with On- and Off-Blockchain Components. It documents the implementation of a preliminary architecture that integrates the CCC tool with the Ethereum blockchain. It also documents how I used the EPROMELA tool for generating execution sequences (use cases) for testing the implementation.
    A salient feature of the report is that it includes inputs from Meng Weng Wong from legalese.com and the CodeX Center, Stanford University and from Alexis Chun from legalese.com and the Singapore Management University. Legalese.com supported my KT application to the Research Strategy Office, with a support letter.
  • 30 Jul 2018: Interim Report submitted to Research Strategy Office:
    I have submitted an Interim Report to the Research Strategy Office.
  • 5 Aug 2018: README.md of EPROMELA tool upgraded:
    The README.md file of the contraval repository that hosts the EPROMELA tool has been upgraded. The new features consist of:
    1. a helloWorld example of a smart contract written in epromela.
    2. explanation of different execution models of contractual business operations.
    3. two epromela models of the helloWorld example that follow different execution models of contractual business operations. The code is available to download and repeat the experiments.
    4. explanation of the abstractions behind the Business Event Generator (BEG) that lies at the core of epromela.
  • 10 Aug 2018: TECOmate git repository created:
    I have created the TECOmate repository (Tools for the Enforcement of Smart Contracts Online with MAthematics and TEchnology) to host version 1.2 of the Contract Compliant Checker (CCC).
  • 30 Sep 2018: camera ready version of FPDAPP paper submitted:
    The camera ready version of the On and Off-Blockchain Enforcement Of Smart Contracts workshop paper has been submitted for publications at The International Workshop on Future Perspective of Decentralized Applications (FPDAPP).
  • 1 Oct 2018: Technical report accepted at SC2:
    The technical report Implementation of Smart Contracts Using Hybrid Architectures with On- and Off-Blockchain Components has been accepted for publication at The 8th IEEE International Symposium on Cloud and Services Computing (IEEE SC2) 2018.
    This achievement shows the scientific value of the hybrid architecture that I we have implemented.
  • 22 Oct 2018: Camera ready version of SC2 paper submitted:
    I have produced the camera ready version of Implementation of Smart Contracts Using Hybrid Architectures with On- and Off-Blockchain Components and submited to The 8th IEEE International Symposium on Cloud and Services Computing (IEEE SC2) 2018 for publication.
  • 5 Nov 2018: Main page of TECOmate enhanced:
    I have corrected and enhanced the main page of the TECOmate repository.
  • 7 Jan 2019: An enhanced version of the SC2 paper submitted to Research Gate:
    I have produced an enhanced version of the Implementation of Smart Contracts Using Hybrid Architectures with On- and Off-Blockchain Components SC2 paper and uploaded to Research Gate. It includes feed back taken from my presentation in Paris, spelling corrections and enhancements of some sections.