Off-chain Execution and Verification of Computationally Intensive Smart Contracts

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new framework for off-chain execution and verification of complex smart contracts, reducing computational redundancy and eliminating the need for trusted environments, enabling more efficient blockchain computations.

Contribution

It presents the first comprehensive solution supporting non-deterministic, high-level language computations off-chain without trusted environments, improving efficiency for intensive smart contracts.

Findings

Some applications require 71x the current Ethereum gas limit

The framework can significantly reduce gas costs for intensive computations

Supports non-deterministic and high-level language computations off-chain

Abstract

We propose a novel framework for off-chain execution and verification of computationally-intensive smart contracts. Our framework is the first solution that avoids duplication of computing effort across multiple contractors, does not require trusted execution environments, supports computations that do not have deterministic results, and supports general-purpose computations written in a high-level language. Our experiments reveal that some intensive applications may require as much as 141 million gas, approximately 71x more than the current block gas limit for computation in Ethereum today, and can be avoided by utilizing the proposed framework.