Smart contracts are computer programs that can be used to store the terms of a contract into a blockchain, where they can be executed automatically. The promising technology is being used in cryptocurrencies and is waiting in the wings in many industries: Real estate transactions, licensing, checking supply chains or controlling production processes – many transactions and processes that today have to be done by hand could be automated and significantly accelerated in the future with programmed contracts.

However, interest in smart contracts is also growing in hacker circles. The programs are permanently online. As soon as a vulnerability is discovered somewhere in the code, it can easily be exploited. In recent times, there have been several thefts of cryptocurrency, because smart contracts had security vulnerabilities that were not closed quickly enough. “Many companies have lost their trust in the technology,” explains Prof. Davi. “If we want smart contracts to reach their full potential, we need to effectively secure them against hacking.”

With the funds from the ERC Grant, he plans to realize the first solution for the protection of smart contracts that covers all development and deployment phases of a blockchain: A key element will be the first compiler for smart contracts that detects and automatically fixes programming errors already in the development phase. Cyber attacks on ongoing transactions will be detected by a new monitoring tool and averted before they cause major damage. In addition, to assess the security of existing contracts and better understand the reasons for cyberattacks, Davi and his team are researching novel forensic analysis techniques. “The ERC grant gives us the opportunity to integrate our diverse ideas into a powerful overall solution.”

ERC Starting Grants are funding instruments of the European Research Council (ERC), which are intended to support young scientists in making the career leap to independent top researchers. At the time of application, a maximum of seven years may have elapsed since the award of the doctoral degree. The sole evaluation criterion is the scientific excellence of the researcher and the proposed project. Further information: https://erc.europa.eu/funding/starting-grants

About

Lucas Davi’s research career began at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, where he completed his computer science studies in 2009 with an award-winning master’s thesis in the field of IT security. He specialized further at TU Darmstadt, where he worked on this PhD from 2010 to 2015, developing novel defense mechanisms against software exploits for various computer architectures. In 2016, he was awarded the ACM SIGSAC Doctoral Dissertation Award, the most recognized international dissertation award in the field of computer security, for his doctoral thesis. He is also a two-time winner of the German IT Security Award. As a Principal Investigator he leads projects in the DFG Cluster of Excellence CASA and in the DFG Collaborative Research Center CROSSING. Since 2016, he has been researching and teaching as a assistant professor at paluno – The Ruhr Institute for Software Technology. He has established his own research group there, whose contributions are highly influential in academia and industry.