Off-Chain Compute Is All You Need — Emperor

Blockchains are globally distributed ledgers that come to a consensus over a global state. Some blockchains come equipped with a Turing-complete execution environment that enables programmability on top of this global state. Programs that target blockchains’ execution environments are called smart contracts, and the underlying blockchains are called smart contract platforms. Ethereum, Solana, and Avalanche are some of the most widely known smart contract platforms. We can think of smart contract platforms as distributed computers, with the execution environment (or virtual machine) acting like the CPU and the state performing the role of storage. This framing of blockchains as computers will be important to motivate why coprocessors/off-chain compute is inevitable, especially in the context of blockchains. In traditional computing, coprocessors originated in microarchitecture to enhance performance. Similarly, coprocessors on Ethereum promise access to historical data and high-performa

Towards a Proof-Based Future - Written with 0xkrane . Introduction Blockchains are globally distributed ledgers that come to a consensus over a global state. Some blockchains come equipped with a Turing-complete execution environment that enables programmability on top of this global state. Programs that target blockchains’ execution environments are called smart contracts, and the underlying blockchains are called smart contract platforms. Ethereum, Solana, and Avalanche are some of the most widely known smart contract platforms. We can think of smart contract platforms as distributed compute

related reading

• Possible futures of the Ethereum protocol, part 2: The Surgevitalik.eth.limo
• Should Ethereum be okay with enshrining more things in the protocol?vitalik.eth.limo
• The Ethereum Virtual Machine — How does it work? | by Luit | MyCrypto | Mediummedium.com
• On Abstraction | Ethereum Foundation Blogblog.ethereum.org
• The Definitive Guide to Sequencing - by James Prestwichprestwich.substack.com
• What Are Smart Contracts and How Do They Work?academy.binance.com
• Shared Sequencing: Defragmenting the L2 Rollup Ecosystem - HackMDhackmd.io
• How does Ethereum work, anyway?preethikasireddy.com
• Trilemmas in Decentralized Computing — zerummirror.xyz
• Ethereum is Changing, and Smart Contract Architecture Should Too — Archetypearchetype.mirror.xyz
• Optimistic pool - a universal co-processor for Ethereum mainnet - Applications - Ethereum Researchethresear.ch
• How the Sovereign SDK works — Sovereignmirror.xyz