---
_id: '8296'
abstract:
- lang: eng
text: While showing great promise, smart contracts are difficult to program correctly,
as they need a deep understanding of cryptography and distributed algorithms,
and offer limited functionality, as they have to be deterministic and cannot operate
on secret data. In this paper we present Protean, a general-purpose decentralized
computing platform that addresses these limitations by moving from a monolithic
execution model, where all participating nodes store all the state and execute
every computation, to a modular execution-model. Protean employs secure specialized
modules, called functional units, for building decentralized applications that
are currently insecure or impossible to implement with smart contracts. Each functional
unit is a distributed system that provides a special-purpose functionality by
exposing atomic transactions to the smart-contract developer. Combining these
transactions into arbitrarily-defined workflows, developers can build a larger
class of decentralized applications, such as provably-secure and fair lotteries
or e-voting.
article_processing_charge: No
author:
- first_name: Enis Ceyhun
full_name: Alp, Enis Ceyhun
last_name: Alp
- first_name: Eleftherios
full_name: Kokoris Kogias, Eleftherios
id: f5983044-d7ef-11ea-ac6d-fd1430a26d30
last_name: Kokoris Kogias
- first_name: Georgia
full_name: Fragkouli, Georgia
last_name: Fragkouli
- first_name: Bryan
full_name: Ford, Bryan
last_name: Ford
citation:
ama: 'Alp EC, Kokoris Kogias E, Fragkouli G, Ford B. Rethinking general-purpose
decentralized computing. In: Proceedings of the Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating
Systems. ACM; 2019:105-112. doi:10.1145/3317550.3321448'
apa: 'Alp, E. C., Kokoris Kogias, E., Fragkouli, G., & Ford, B. (2019). Rethinking
general-purpose decentralized computing. In Proceedings of the Workshop on
Hot Topics in Operating Systems (pp. 105–112). Bertinoro, Italy: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3317550.3321448'
chicago: Alp, Enis Ceyhun, Eleftherios Kokoris Kogias, Georgia Fragkouli, and Bryan
Ford. “Rethinking General-Purpose Decentralized Computing.” In Proceedings
of the Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems, 105–12. ACM, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1145/3317550.3321448.
ieee: E. C. Alp, E. Kokoris Kogias, G. Fragkouli, and B. Ford, “Rethinking general-purpose
decentralized computing,” in Proceedings of the Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating
Systems, Bertinoro, Italy, 2019, pp. 105–112.
ista: 'Alp EC, Kokoris Kogias E, Fragkouli G, Ford B. 2019. Rethinking general-purpose
decentralized computing. Proceedings of the Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating
Systems. HotOS: Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems, 105–112.'
mla: Alp, Enis Ceyhun, et al. “Rethinking General-Purpose Decentralized Computing.”
Proceedings of the Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems, ACM, 2019,
pp. 105–12, doi:10.1145/3317550.3321448.
short: E.C. Alp, E. Kokoris Kogias, G. Fragkouli, B. Ford, in:, Proceedings of the
Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems, ACM, 2019, pp. 105–112.
conference:
end_date: 2019-05-15
location: Bertinoro, Italy
name: 'HotOS: Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems'
start_date: 2019-05-13
date_created: 2020-08-26T11:45:45Z
date_published: 2019-05-01T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2021-01-12T08:17:56Z
day: '01'
doi: 10.1145/3317550.3321448
extern: '1'
language:
- iso: eng
month: '05'
oa_version: None
page: 105-112
publication: Proceedings of the Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems
publication_identifier:
isbn:
- '9781450367271'
publication_status: published
publisher: ACM
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: Rethinking general-purpose decentralized computing
type: conference
user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
year: '2019'
...