Designs for the L4 Contract Programming Language Based on Deontic Modal Logic

We propose the creation of a domain-specific-language (DSL) for (smart) contracts are consistent, correct, and complete. Our DSL, L4, doesn’t simply fill templates, it fulfills the Curry–Howard correspondence between computer programs and mathematical proofs, i.e., what functional languages do for the 𝜆-calculus, the DSL will do for the deontic modal μ-calculus. This means the DSL natively expresses obligations, permissions, prohibitions, and other contractual concepts in a way that computers can easily reason about. The compiler will be responsible for static analysis of the contracts and automated detection of several classes of errors, including: inconsistency, inompleteness, goal satisfaction, and policy compliance. Functional languages are well-suited for this kind of formal verification, and we developing L4 in Haskell. L4 derives from the academic literature on contract formalization, everything is opensource and we invite feature requests and contributors to define and create what will become "SQL for contracts".

The Shape of Protocols to Come

Ethereum defies easy categorization—it blends aspects of money, nations, and more, yet doesn't fit neatly into any single category. To build better mental models for understanding Ethereum, we've spent the past two years stepping back and exploring the broader class it belongs to: Protocols. This talk explores the fundamental properties of protocols, strategies for navigating them, and how Ethereum can uniquely contribute to this emerging research field.

Cultivating the Understory : Building Resilient DAOs

Let's explore the overlooked "understory" of DAOs and teams: the human layer that forms the foundation of successful decentralized governance. While much attention is given to the technical and structural aspects of DAOs (the "overstory"), we'll dive into the cultural, social, and distributed leadership elements that are crucial for the longevity and effectiveness of anything we build. Themes: DAO Ecology, Decentralized leadership, Coding culture DNA, Biomimicry for Governance

Agreement Making in Solidity: A Legal Perspective

Bill Marino of Cornell Tech presents on Agreement Making in Solidity: A Legal Perspective.

Backfeed

Matan Field presents on Backfeed (http://backfeed.cc), which develops resilient technology and new economic models to support free, large-scale, systematic collaboration.

devp2p

Ethereum's Alex Leverington presents on "devp2p", Ethereum's networking protocol.

Lessons from International Law: How to reframe our thinking around crypto governance

Governance challenges have plagued international politics since the beginning of time. As we think about governance in crypto, it's critical to understand the history of politics and law - because governance is inherently about human nature and behavior. Whether it's smart contracts, proof of stake, centralized nodes, or miner consolidation concerns, these are all rooted in age-old governance problems presented in a new form. In my presentation, I will cover the foundational principles of international law, its evolution, and how we can take those lessons and context and think about governance from a new perspective. Specifically, I will use examples of current global governance organization such as the UN (and its predecessor, the League of Nations), the ICJ (International Court of Justice), and the lessons that these organizations hold for the emerging field of crypto governance.

How We Think About Storing Crypto is Broken

The original sin of cryptocurrency is not transaction speed, poor anonymity, volatility or a high Gini coefficient -- it's a digital format which is confusing to use, easily delegated to centralized exchanges and, most importantly, reliant on multiple layers of software and hardware trust. What if instead Bitcoin and Ethereum were like cash, a physical format that billions of people are intimately familiar with? To achieve a viable physical cryptocurrency, however, we need radically open hardware with cryptographically-secured guarantees of their face value and uniqueness anchored in silicon. We propose a novel, low cost, physical format for cryptocurrency -- more appropriately "cryptocash" -- that's intuitive to use and allows for free, anonymous, and instantaneously final transactions. By isolating cryptographic key material and operations from software and firmware in secure silicon, we can build a new hardware foundation that supports not only self-ownership of crypto assets, but broadly serves to secure the secrets users need for participation in the decentralized web. We'll hone in how shared trust in hardware and chips must ultimately be quantified through crypto-economic incentives such that we can move away from manufacturers that willfully or ineptly include backdoors in their products.

The paradox of centralized tools doing accounting for decentralized finance

This talk is going to be about a paradox that has been prevalent since the early days of Cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies were made to empower the individual, to be their own bank and to enable financial freedom without having to rely on centralized institutions. The paradox lies in the contradiction that when people want to do accounting or analytics for this new financial system they happily turn to centralized tools. This act enforces the status quo of finance being managed by centralized platforms and goes against the spirit of decentralization, undermining everything we are building. The talk will present multiple examples of this paradox in the world around us, from the way people do analytics (Blockfolio e.t.c.), to the way they do tax accounting (Bitcoin Tax e.t.c.). There will be some theorizing on why this is the case and underline why this is bad for the ecosystem and exceptionally dangerous for the people who utilize such services. Finally potential solutions to this problem will be presented, showing how a tool that performs decentralized financial analytics, accounting and tax reporting should look like in order to respect user's privacy and fit in this new era of decentralized finance we are now entering.

Onchain Capital Allocation: From current mechanisms to future possbilities

Capital allocation, from paying bills to complex organizational funding, often suffers from inefficiencies and lack of transparency. Web3 has the potential to revolutionize this by enabling more efficient, effective, and transparent capital distribution. By addressing coordination failures and introducing new onchain strategies, crypto could transform how society allocates resources. Gitcoin founder Kevin Owocki will articulate this design space in this 20 minute talk.