Arithmetic enhancement of C-like smart contracts for verifiable computation

1. A computer-implemented method comprising the steps:

processing a portion of source code to generate an arithmetic circuit, including evaluating one or more constants provided in the source code to provide one or more expressions comprising Boolean and/or arithmetic operators, wherein:

the source code is written in a high level programming language and further wherein the source code represents a smart contract; and

the arithmetic circuit comprises one or more arithmetic gates arranged to represent some or all of the functionality expressed in the source code, wherein the arithmetic circuit is a machine executable version of the source code, and is arranged to compute a result.

2. A method according to claim 1 and further comprising the step of:

using the arithmetic circuit to provide a hardware and/or software circuit.

3. A method according to claim 1 wherein:

the arithmetic circuit comprises n-bit wires connected to arithmetic gates.

4. A method according to claim 1 wherein:

the arithmetic circuit is architecture independent.

5. A method according to claim 1 wherein the method further comprises pre-processing of the source code to determine one or more constants, the pre-processing comprising one or more of the following steps:

removing comments;

importing header declarations from header files to source files;

merging multiple source files; and

solving or evaluating directives and macros.

6. A method according to claim 1 wherein the method further comprises the step of detecting all global variables declared in the source code, wherein a global variable relates to a function, a structure or class, a constant and/or an entry point for execution.

7. A method according to claim 1 wherein the method further comprises the step of:

generating a table of symbols to associate each symbol provided in the source code with declaration information provided in the source code, the symbols in the table being global and or local symbols.

8. A method according to claim 1 wherein the method further comprises the step of performing a line-by-line evaluation of the source code which results in an arithmetic and/or logic expression which expresses one or more output variables as a combination of logic and/or arithmetic operations applied on one or more input variables.

9. A method according to claim 8 wherein the line-by-line evaluation of the source code comprises the sub-steps of:

decoding of types;

decoding of expressions;

evaluation of expressions; and/or

allocation of memory for data structures required by said functionality.

10. A method according to claim 8 and further comprising the step of:

mapping the arithmetic and/or logic operations of the expression to arithmetic gates.

11. A method according to claim 10 wherein the mapping step comprises the sub-step of:

performing a wire expansion; and/or performing a wire compression.

12. A method according to claim 1 and further comprising the step:

using the arithmetic circuit to generate a quadratic program comprising a set of polynomials which provide a description of the arithmetic circuit.

13. A method according to claim 12 and further comprising the step:

providing the quadratic program to an entity for execution of the quadratic program using one or more inputs.

14. A computer-implemented system arranged to perform the steps of claim 1 , wherein the system comprises an interpreter arranged to perform the processing of the source code, wherein the interpreter comprises instructions stored in memory and executed by a processor.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon executable instructions that, as a result of being executed by a processor of a computer system, cause the computer system to at least perform claim 1 .