From 1ba9c823c322d8f9012d93795b4428678cc99553 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "g. nicholas d'andrea" Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2022 22:23:32 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] Draft problem statement for README --- README.md | 36 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 36 insertions(+) diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 36dcf11e..e34acea9 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -2,6 +2,42 @@ _Because debugging on Ethereum is hard._ +## Problem statement + +Smart contracts offer the fundamental promise that code execution is verifiably +transparent. Not only is this necessary to ensure network liveness, +but this ability to _directly observe_ the step-by-step operation of the +Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) affords a foundation for public trust amongst +software developers, auditors, and end-users at large. + +Unfortunately, direct observation of the EVM fails to connect +low-level system behavior with any code authors' original framework of +meaning. Humans usually write programs in high-level languages that they must +compile to a form the machine can execute. It is +_extremely impractical_ to reason about the machine-code that compilers +output and the system behavior that results upon executing this code. + +Traditional computing platforms have largely solved this problem through the +design, standardization, and use of **debugging data formats**[^1], which allow +compilers a mechanism to specify precisely how to translate a program as the +machine runs it into a program as the human wrote it. Several such formats +exist in use today, most notably DWARF[^2], and these allow ubiquitous +software integration between compilers, editors, and debuggers. Sadly, no existing +format suffices to cover the intrinsic differences present in smart contract +programming, let alone cover some of the architectural decisions that +high-level languages have made in response to the EVM's constraints. + +Although it's straightforward to observe and replay the EVM directly, +understanding the EVM and the smart contracts running on it remains within the +domain of experts. Without a mechanism for machine-to-human translation, +smart contract software quality comes at a higher cost, and any promise of +trust risks erosion. + +[^1]: See [Debugging data format - + Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debugging_data_format) + +[^2]: See [DWARF - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DWARF) + ## Purpose of this repository This repository serves as a home for the working group to design