Research & Updates

Discover the scientific foundation of our products through our library of published research and innovations.

Academic Research & Publications

Compositional Specification of Commercial Contracts

First conference paper on compositional contract specification.

Jesper Andersen, Ebbe Elsborg, Fritz Henglein, Jakob Grue Simonsen, and Christian Stefansen. Compositional specification of commercial contracts. In Tiziana Margaria, Bernhard Steffen, Anna Philippou, and Manfred Reitenspieß, editors, ISoLA (Preliminary proceedings), volume TR-2004-6 of Technical Report, pages 103–110. Department of Computer Science, University of Cyprus, October 2004.

October 2004 Published
Academic Research & Publications

Compositional specification of commercial contracts

Compositional specification of formal contracts; the core “CSL paper”. The “original” compositional contract specification language and its denotational, relational and various small-step operational semantics.

Jesper Andersen, Ebbe Elsborg, Fritz Henglein, Jakob Grue Simonsen, and Christian Stefansen. Compositional specification of commercial contracts. International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer (STTT), 8(6):485–516, November 2006.

November 2006 Peer-reviewed Published
Academic Research & Publications

POETS: process-oriented event-driven transaction systems

Enterprise system architecture based on an extended resource-events-agents (REA) model of resource accounting and compositional domain-specific languages for specifying information (purely functional reports) and processes (compositional contracts and workflows) on top of events.

Fritz Henglein, Ken Friis Larsen, Jakob Grue Simonsen, and Christian Stefansen. POETS: Process-oriented event-driven transaction systems. The Journal of Logic and Algebraic Programming, 78(5):381–401, 2009.

2009 Peer-reviewed Published
Academic Research & Publications

A trace-based model for multiparty contracts

Extended trace-based formal model of compositional contracts with blame assignment; included in Tom Hvitved's dissertation.

Tom Hvitved, Felix Klaedtke, and Eugen Zălinescu. A trace-based model for multiparty contracts. The Journal of Logic and Algebraic Programming, 81(2):72–98, 2012.

2012 Peer-reviewed Published
Academic Research & Publications

Contract Formalisation and Modular Implementation of Domain-Specific Languages

Multiparty contract model based on the originally nameless compositional contract specification language CSL and other results on DSL implementation technology. Ph.D. dissertation.

Tom Hvitved. Contract Formalisation and Modular Implementation of Domain-Specific Languages. PhD thesis, Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen (DIKU), November 2011.

November 2011 Publicly available
Academic Research & Publications

Domain-Specific Languages for Enterprise Systems

Generalized and extended variant, including implementation of small example system, of POETS system architecture for enterprise systems.

Jesper Andersen, Patrick Bahr, Fritz Henglein, and Tom Hvitved. Domain-specific languages for enterprise systems. In Tiziana Margaria and Bernhard Steffen, editors, Proc. 6th International Symposium On Leveraging Applications of Formal Methods, Verification and Validation (ISoLA), volume 8802 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS), pages 73–95. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2014.

2014 Peer-reviewed Published
Academic Research & Publications

Automated Execution of Financial Contracts on Blockchains

Domain-specific language based contract interpretation on public blockchain systems, specifically Ethereum. Note: The DSL is based on Eber-Peyton Jones's original language, which motivated the development of CSL.

Benjamin Egelund-Müller, Martin Elsman, Fritz Henglein, and Omri Ross. Automated execution of financial contracts on blockchains. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 59(6):457–467, 2017.

2017 Peer-reviewed Published Nominated for Association of Information Systems Best Paper Award 2017
Academic Research & Publications

Blockchain deconstructed (abstract)

Mathematical and conceptual foundation of DLT architecture and scalability underlying Smart Financial Instruments (SFI) system.

Fritz Henglein. Blockchain deconstructed (abstract). In Proc. 2nd Symposium on Distributed Ledger Technology, Gold Coast, Australia, July 2018.

July 2018 Published (invited contribution)
Academic Research & Publications

It’s about time

An algebraic model for “real”, financial and business calendars based on a free algebra of durations and their mapping to conventional Western calendars; illustrates their use in date count conventions. Predecessor to The 31/372 Calendar.

Fritz Henglein. It’s about time. Draft, December 2019.

December 2019 Unpublished
Academic Research & Publications

A Formally Verified Static Analysis Framework for Compositional Contracts

Fully mechanized formalization of semantics and abstract interpretation of a core of CSL, including mechanized correctness of multiple semantics and of compositional abstract interpretation framework.

Fritz Henglein, Christian Kjær Larsen, and Agata Murawska. A formally verified static analysis framework for compositional contracts. In Proc. 4th Workshop on Trusted Smart Contracts, 2020.

2020 Peer-reviewed Published
Academic Research & Publications

Algebraic Resource Accounting for Transfers and Transformations

Algebraic model for resource preservation that generalizes “no-double-spend” to arbitrary numbers of digital asset types and extends it to resource transformations (production of one product from other products). MS thesis.

Juan-Manuel Torres Garcia. Algebraic resource accounting for transfers and transformations. Master’s thesis in computer science, Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen (DIKU), September 2020.

September 2020 Unpublished
Academic Research & Publications

Mechanized formalization of a propositional calculus for contract specification

Fully mechanized specification of semantics and equivalences of the propositional core of CSL in Coq.

Dawit Tirore. Mechanized formalization of a propositional calculus for contract specification. Master’s thesis, Department of Computer Science (DIKU), University of Copenhagen, May 2021.

May 2021 Peer-reviewed Published
Academic Research & Publications

Prototype Implementation and Application of Contract Specification Language CSL2

Design, implementation of a shallow embedded domain-specific language for digital contracts in the functional programming language Haskell. CSL2 expresses that it is based on compositional specifications similar to original CSL design. MS thesis.

Jens Kanstrup Larsen. Prototype implementation and application of contract specification language CSL2. Master’s thesis, Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen (DIKU), Copenhagen, Denmark, May 2021.

May 2021 Unpublished
Academic Research & Publications

Trading Green Bonds Using Distributed Ledger Technology

Description of SFI architecture, its applicability to new financial products such as green bonds, and its evaluation in the context of financial regulation, specifically the EU DLT Pilot regime.

Henrik Axelsen, Ulrik Rasmussen, Johannes Rude Jensen, Omri Ross, and Fritz Henglein. Trading green bonds using distributed ledger technology. In Proc. 31st European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Kristiansand, Norway, June 2023.

June 2023 Peer-reviewed Published
In the Press

Smart Financial Instruments

Copenhagen Fintech supported R&D projects testing Smart Financial Instruments (SFIs) under EU financial regulation, including the DLT Pilot Regime. The platform enables trading of various instruments including bonds, crypto assets, and carbon credits with instantaneous clearing and settlement in fiat currencies.

October 2021 – December 2023 Copenhagen Fintech