Bryan Ford's Home Page

Bryan Ford Submitted to arXiv on August 19, 2026 Abstract: Classical set theory buys its power on credit: its axioms assert totalities no computation could survey.

Bryan Ford arXiv preprint 2607.25533 August 18, 2026 Abstract: Grounded arithmetic is a family of formal systems for reasoning about computation in which a statement may be asserted only when a terminating computation backs it; the logics are paracomplete…

Bryan Ford arXiv preprint 2608.16140 August 17, 2026 Abstract: By Tarski's undefinability theorem, no consistent classical formal system that includes arithmetic can define its own truth predicate.

Bryan Ford arXiv preprint 2607.25533 July 28, 2026 Abstract: Informal statements of Gödel's incompleteness theorems often run: “no consistent formal system with arithmetic can be complete” - omitting the fact that the theorems as proved assume classical l…

Ananthajit Srikanth and Bryan Ford Isabelle Workshop 2026 June 24–25, 2026 Lisbon, Portugal Abstract: Standard logical foundations in theorem proving constrain the set of recursive functions that are directly expressible to avoid inconsistencies.

Invited keynote at DAO Symposium 2026 July 7, 2026 – Winterthur, Switzerland Slides: PDF

Benjamin Bürki M.Sc. thesis in Cyber

Talk at Saul Kripke Center, CUNY March 23, 2026 – CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY, USA Abstract: While Kripke inspired numerous alternative approaches to truth and paradox, could we accomplish something like ordinary “working mathematical reasoning” in…

The core purpose of this architectural layer is digital preservation: to maintain a highly resilient, tamper-resistant, and transparent record or history of events.

Cristina Băsescu, Georgia Fragkouli, Enis Ceyhun Alp, Jose M.

Last week my EPFL colleague Martin Rohrmeier (Digital and Cognitive Musicology) pointed out to me the truly fascinating Aymara people and their language, which can directly express 3-valued logic (true, false, uncertain).

Louis-Henri Manuel Jakob Merino Ph.D. thesis advised by Bryan Ford December 5, 2025 Abstract: Online voting promises greater convenience and accessibility, but moving from supervised polling places to unsupervised settings magnifies the risk of coercion a…

Talk at Swiss Crypto Day 2025 - Halloween Edition October 31, 2025 – EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland Slides: PDF Related: TRIP system paper TRIP usability paper

Elliot Bobrow, Bryan Ford, and Stefan Milenković arXiv preprint 2510.25369 October 29, 2025 (first version) Abstract: Neither the classical nor intuitionistic logic traditions are perfectly-aligned with the purpose of reasoning about computation, in that…

Louis-Henri Merino, Simone Colombo, Rene Reyes, Alaleh Azhir, Shailesh Mishra, Pasindu Tennage, Mohammad Amin Raeisi, Haoqian Zhang, Jeff Allen, Bernhard Tellenbach, Vero Estrada-Galiñanes, and Bryan Ford SOSP 2025: The 31st Symposium on Operating Systems…

Talk at Dagstuhl Seminar on Trustworthy Evidence-Based Elections October 8, 2025 – Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany Slides: PDF Related: Coercion-resistant E-voting talk Identity and personhood paper TRIP system paper TRIP usability paper

Talk at Dagstuhl Seminar on Trustworthy Evidence-Based Elections October 7, 2025 – Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany Slides: PDF Related: Beyond voting talk TRIP system paper TRIP usability paper

Sascha Kehrli B.Sc. thesis advised by Bryan Ford and Roger Wattenhofer September 30, 2025 Abstract: This thesis presents a foundational formalization of Grounded Arithmetic (GA), a first-order arithmetic based on the principles of Grounded Deduction (GD),…

David Nicolaus Matthäus Holzwarth B.Sc. thesis advised by Bryan Ford and Pramod Bhatotia August 28, 2025 Abstract: This thesis explores fractional delegation in Liquid Democracy, where voters can split their vote among multiple delegates, aiming to reduce…

Pasindu Nivanthaka Tennage Ph.D. thesis advised by Bryan Ford August 15, 2025 Abstract: Deploying consensus protocols in the wide-area is challenging due to unpredictable and adversarial nature of wide-area networks.

Simone Maria Stefano Colombo Ph.D. thesis advised by Bryan Ford January 10, 2025 Abstract: Secure messaging systems are essential for ensuring privacy and confidentiality in today’s digital communication.

Keynote at IC3 Winter Retreat 2025 January 6, 2025 – Engelberg, Switzerland Slides: PDF

Invited talk at DAO Symposium 2024 November 28, 2024 – Zürich, Switzerland Slides: PDF

Bryan Ford arXiv preprint 2409.08243 September 12, 2024 (first version) Abstract: How can we reason around logical paradoxes without falling into them?

Talk at Seminar 24362 – Next-Generation Secure Distributed Computing September 4, 2024 – Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany Slides: PDF

Louis-Henri Merino, Alaleh Azhir, Haoqian Zhang, Simone Colombo, Bernhard Tellenbach, Vero Estrada-Galiñanes, Bryan Ford 45th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy May 20-23, 2024 Abstract: Online voting is attractive for convenience and accessibility, b…

Keynote at ChainScience 2024 April 5, 2024 – Zürich, Switzerland Slides: PDF

Haoqian Zhang, Michelle Yeo, Vero Estrada-Galinanes, and Bryan Ford 8th Workshop on Trusted Smart Contracts (WTSC) March 8, 2024 Abstract: Auctions, a long-standing method of trading goods and services, are a promising use case for decentralized finance.

Enis Ceyhun Alp Ph.D. thesis advised by Bryan Ford January 19, 2024 Abstract: Smart contracts have emerged as the most promising foundations for applications of the blockchain technology.

Keynote at 4th International Workshop on Distributed Infrastructure for Common Good (DICG) December 12, 2023 – Bologna, Italy Slides: PDF

Pasindu Tennage, Cristina Basescu, Eleftherios Kokoris-Kogias, Ewa Syta, Philipp Jovanovic, Vero Estrada-Galiñanes, and Bryan Ford 29th ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles October 23-26, 2023 Abstract: Leader-based consensus algorithms are fast…

Bryan Ford 32nd USENIX Security Symposium August 10, 2023 Abstract: This paper introduces protocols for authenticated private information retrieval.

Cristina Băsescu Ph.D. thesis advised by Bryan Ford May 26, 2023 Abstract: Distributed systems designers typically strive to improve performance and preserve availability despite failures or attacks; but, when strong consistency is also needed, they encou…

Talk at IC3 Winter Retreat 2023 January 16, 2023 – Les Diablerets, Switzerland Slides: PDF

We often need to embed strings written in one programming language into code written in another.

Bryan Ford Abstract: Embedding text in one language within text of another is commonplace for numerous purposes, but usually requires tedious and error-prone “escaping” transformations on the embedded string.

Could you use a markup syntax that supports the full expressive power and richness of HTML or XML, but is more terse, easier to type, and less frankly ugly?

Georgia Fragkouli Ph.D. thesis co-advised by Katerina Argyraki and Bryan Ford August 29, 2022 Abstract: From medical support to education and remote work, our everyday lives increasingly depend on Internet performance.

Haoqian Zhang, Louis-Henri Merino, Vero Estrada-Galiñanes, and Bryan Ford Decentralized Internet, Networks, Protocols, and Systems (DINPS) Bologna, Italy – July 10, 2022 Abstract: Front-running, the practice of benefiting from advanced knowledge of pending

Invited talk at INRIA prospective seminar on Distributed Systems and Middleware July 6, 2022 – Rungis, France Slides: PDF

Bryan Ford Swiss Federal Chancellery – Independent examination of Swiss Post system 2021 Scopes 1, 2 and 3 Final Report – April 4, 2022 Abstract: Switzerland is one of the few countries globally that has a national program for electronic voting (E-voting),

Ksandros Apostoli M.S. thesis advised by Simone Colombo and Bryan Ford March 22, 2022 Abstract Recent anonymous credential schemes present major advances in the way digital identities are treated, empowering users with fine-grained control over their pers…

Amogh Pradeep, Hira Javaid, Ryan Williams, Antoine Rault, David Choffnes, Stevens Le Blond, and Bryan Ford Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies March 16, 2022 Abstract: Internet blackouts are challenging environments for anonymity and censorship…

Invited talk at SI Summit 2022 February 17, 2022 – Virtual Slides: PDF

Kirill Nikitin Ph.D. thesis advised by Bryan Ford November 26, 2021 Abstract: Secure retrieval of data requires integrity, confidentially, transparency, and metadata-privacy of the process.

Cristina Băsescu and Bryan Ford Twentieth ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks (HotNets) November 10-12, 2021 Abstract: Failures far away from a user should intuitively be less likely to affect that user.

Talk at Finance & Technology Conference 2021 on Crypto-assets and Asset Tokenization EPFL Center for Digital Trust (C4DT) November 5, 2021 – Lausanne, Switzerland Slides: PDF

Talk at Seminar 21431 – Rigorous Methods for Smart Contracts October 25, 2021 – Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany Slides: PDF

Distinguished Lecture at Vienna CyberSecurity and Privacy Research Cluster October 13, 2021 – Virtual Slides: PDF

David Jules Froelicher Ph.D. thesis advised by Jean-Pierre Hubaux and Bryan Ford October 1, 2021 Abstract: Analyzing and processing data that are siloed and dispersed among multiple distrustful stakeholders is difficult and can even become impossible when…