BlockSTM: Scaling Blockchain Execution

BlockSTM is a parallel execution engine for smart contracts, built around the principles of Software Transactional Memory. Transactions are grouped in blocks, and every execution of the block must yield the same deterministic outcome. Here, Rati Gelashvili (Aptos) explores how BlockSTM further enforces that the outcome is consistent with executing transactions according to a preset order, leveraging this order to dynamically detect dependencies and avoid conflicts during speculative transaction execution. At the core of BlockSTM is a novel, low-overhead collaborative scheduler of execution and validation tasks.

About the presenter

Rati Gelashvili obtained his PhD in 2017 from MIT with research centered around the complexity of synchronization. Rati did a postdoctoral fellowship with Professor Faith Ellen at the University of Toronto, after which he was an engineering team lead at NeuralMagic and a research scientist at Novi. Rati is currently Blockchain researcher and member of the founding team at Aptos. twitter: @rgelash

About a16z crypto research

a16z crypto research is a multidisciplinary lab that works closely with our portfolio companies and others toward solving the important problems in the space, and toward advancing the science and technology of the next generation of the internet. Our researchers are technologists, scientists, cryptographers, and cryptocurrency experts, working to bridge the worlds of academic theory with industry practice, and to help shape crypto and web3 as a formal area of study. More about us: a16z.com/2022/04/21/announcing-a16z-crypto-research