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LibraryConsensus2017Design paperCorpus record

Bitcoin as a Transaction Ledger: A Composable Treatment

Bitcoin as a ledger. Christian Badertscher, Ueli Maurer, Daniel Tschudi and Vassilis Zikas.

The paper gives a composable ledger functionality and shows that a bitcoin-like protocol realises it under stated assumptions.

A reading of the public paper. Not a copy, not a benchmark, and not a claim about any later network.

If a paper says 'secure under composition', ask which functionality and which model. This is one of the few that answers for a bitcoin-like ledger.
Evidence
Primary paper
Re-measured
No
Assumptions
3
Records linked
2

Code

Source, repository, and what is actually hosted

  • ePrint 2017/149https://eprint.iacr.org/2017/149
  • The source URL is not a GitHub repository. No code remote is invented.
  • Full text is not mirrored. Public availability is not a licence to copy the file onto this site.
  • Add to a reading list

01 Claim ledger

What the paper is allowed to say

Each row is a sentence already in the study. The status is the same on every row: a model claim, not a live measurement.

  1. Claim 01 · Paper model

    The defect

    The backbone papers analyse a chain of blocks. A wallet author needs a ledger of transactions and a way to compose it with other protocols.

  2. Claim 02 · Paper model

    The proposal

    The paper gives a composable ledger functionality and shows that a bitcoin-like protocol realises it under stated assumptions.

  3. Claim 03 · Paper model

    Composition matters when the ledger is a subroutine of a payment or a co

    The functionality is the specification of what an ideal ledger does.

  4. Claim 04 · Paper model

    The bound

    Composable security is not a phrase a marketing page can invoke without the functionality.

02 Three cuts

Observation, model, falsifier

A desk does not stop at the summary. Each claim is cut three ways, using only this study's own assumptions and checks. Nothing here is a new figure.

  1. 01 The defect

    Observation

    What the study says

    The backbone papers analyse a chain of blocks. A wallet author needs a ledger of transactions and a way to compose it with other protocols.

    Model

    What has to hold

    The model is not a stake chain.

    Falsifier

    What would retire it

    What is the ideal ledger allowed to do?

  2. 02 The proposal

    Observation

    What the study says

    The paper gives a composable ledger functionality and shows that a bitcoin-like protocol realises it under stated assumptions.

    Model

    What has to hold

    Composable security is not a phrase a marketing page can invoke without the functionality.

    Falsifier

    What would retire it

    What is the ideal ledger allowed to do?

  3. 03 Composition matters when the ledger is a subroutine of a payment or a co

    Observation

    What the study says

    The functionality is the specification of what an ideal ledger does.

    Model

    What has to hold

    Composable security is not a phrase a marketing page can invoke without the functionality.

    Falsifier

    What would retire it

    What is the ideal ledger allowed to do?

  4. 04 The bound

    Observation

    What the study says

    Composable security is not a phrase a marketing page can invoke without the functionality.

    Model

    What has to hold

    Composable security is not a phrase a marketing page can invoke without the functionality.

    Falsifier

    What would retire it

    What is the ideal ledger allowed to do?

03 Sequence

One action, as an operating tape

  1. 01Write down the ledger functionality: what an adversary can still reorder or delay.
  2. 02Show the protocol realises it.
  3. 03Do not export the theorem to a protocol with different timing or a different adversary.
  4. 04Which network model is assumed?

04 Load-bearing

The argument, and where a pitch drops it

  1. What the paper is for

    The cut

    If a paper says 'secure under composition', ask which functionality and which model. This is one of the few that answers for a bitcoin-like ledger.

    Why it carries weight

    If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.

    Where it is dropped

    Composable security is not a phrase a marketing page can invoke without the functionality.

  2. What happened after

    The cut

    Later composable treatments of stake chains cite this style of theorem.

    Why it carries weight

    If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.

    Where it is dropped

    Composable security is not a phrase a marketing page can invoke without the functionality.

05 Register

What has to be true

  • Model · Not re-measured

    Composable security is not a phrase a marketing page can invoke without the functionality.

  • Stake and threshold · Not re-measured

    The model is not a stake chain.

  • Model · Not re-measured

    It does not set confirmation policy for a merchant.

06 Divergence

What happened after the paper

Later composable treatments of stake chains cite this style of theorem.

A later client, parameter set, or reward formula is a different object. Cite this paper for the mechanism. Cite a primary release for the network. This desk has not re-run the proof.

07 Pre-mortem

What to check before you use the idea

  4. 0 of 3 marked on this browser. A mark is a reading note, not a pass, a rating, or a recommendation.

08 Anatomy

The paper, in the order a builder needs

The problem it names

The backbone papers analyse a chain of blocks. A wallet author needs a ledger of transactions and a way to compose it with other protocols.

What the design proposes

  • Composition matters when the ledger is a subroutine of a payment or a contract.
  • The functionality is the specification of what an ideal ledger does.
  • Realisation is a proof in their model, not a production audit.

How the mechanism is specified

  • Write down the ledger functionality: what an adversary can still reorder or delay.
  • Show the protocol realises it.
  • Do not export the theorem to a protocol with different timing or a different adversary.

What this page does not treat as proven

  • Composable security is not a phrase a marketing page can invoke without the functionality.
  • The model is not a stake chain.
  • It does not set confirmation policy for a merchant.

Why the desk still reads it

If a paper says 'secure under composition', ask which functionality and which model. This is one of the few that answers for a bitcoin-like ledger.

09 Lexicon

Terms, opened into the record

Functionality
An ideal description of the service the protocol claims to provide.
Composition
The protocol stays secure when other protocols call it.

10 Repository

Every linked record on this page

Underlined words open a page that already exists: a concept, a protocol profile, a failure record, or another paper. If a word is not underlined, this desk does not have a record for it.

Concepts

Protocols

This is Blockchain Lab's reading of a public design paper. It is not the paper, not a copy of it, and not an offer of tokens, equity, custody or a partnership. Later network behaviour can diverge from the text. Nothing here is investment, legal or technical advice.

Research status: Design paper. Last reviewed: 1 October 2026. This is a reading of a public paper, not investment, legal or security advice.