The value of some protocols is enormous. How many dollars handwashing protocols save is difficult to quantify – as is the integrity of the ozone layer, safeguarded by the Montréal Protocol. As of June 2025, Ethereum’s market capitalization is over $330 billion. Protocols are extremely valuable, but unlike markets or supply chains, there isn’t a formal model with which to analyze and improve them.

Within different domains, like the ones mentioned (medicine, climate, cryptography), professionals have very technical ways of analyzing protocols. But there isn’t transfer between domains – and current fields like economics, systems theory, or cybernetics aren’t producing a technical foundation to support that. Most interdisciplinary studies of protocols lean towards social science rather than mathematics or formal methods.

A major focus of the 2025 program is to invest in the technical foundation of protocol studies. Is it possible to derive a formal theory? Maybe. Either way, it’s valuable and interesting. Since no one is working on it, that makes for an exciting opportunity. This year’s technical foundation kicked off on June 11 with a talk from Venkatesh Rao, one of the SoP program directors. There is also an ongoing Special Interest Group that meets biweekly to study formal modeling of protocols.

This fall, in October, SoP will host a weekend, in-person conference called Basket of Protocols (inspired by the bundle of goods that economists use to track prices) to accelerate this stream of research. Participants will tackle a bundle of protocols, ranging from handwashing to internet protocols to diplomatic formalities, in order to derive a set of standards for modeling. Applications will open soon.

Feel free to jump into the conversation on Discord, in the #formal-modelling channel.

Kickoff Talk