A Blockchain Smart Contract Framework Using Interpreted Programming Languages and Decentralized Storage

Abstract

We present a model for an alternative to Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) smart contract blockchain networks which relies on an interpreted programming language and a distributed file system. Specifically we present the model by integrating the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) for decentralized files storage and Python as the interpreted programming language. IPFS ensures that contract code does not change by using content/hash-based addressing. The address of the file can be passed between nodes to recreate the files locally as long as nodes are running an IPFS node as well. In this implementation, we design the model to work with an existing prototype blockchain which was built with IPFS integration. The use of Python to write the code helps ensure transparency as the code does not need to be compiled and thus would not need to be run through a decompiler to make deployed code human-readable. We describe how the data is extracted and validated from a transaction before the code is executed locally and it's respective state updated and stored on the blockchain.