Inference, a formal verification framework, analyzes three WebAssembly-based blockchain platforms—Polkadot Substrate, Stellar Soroban, and Arbitrum Stylus—evaluating their architectural suitability for formal verification of smart contracts and core infrastructure.
This technical article from Inference examines how architectural choices in three major blockchain platforms affect the feasibility of formal verification. Polkadot Substrate's modular pallet system, while flexible at the source level, compiles into a monolithic binary that erases structural boundaries, making formal verification of the runtime nearly impossible. Stellar Soroban takes a minimalist approach with 500k lines of orthodox C/C++ code, maintaining clear alignment between source code and assembly—ideal for verification. Arbitrum Stylus occupies a middle ground, using Go for its Nitro host and the EVM persistence model, presenting moderate verification challenges. The article concludes that focusing on isolated smart contract business logic rather than entire runtimes offers a practical entry point for verification tools, with Soroban contracts being the most tractable verification target due to strict separation of business logic from infrastructure.