LibraryScaling2017Design paperCorpus record
Chainspace: A Sharded Smart Contracts Platform
Chainspace. Mustafa Al-Bassam, Alberto Sonnino, Shehar Bano, Dave Hrycyszyn and George Danezis.
Chainspace shards objects, and a transaction names the objects it will read and write so the shards involved can run a distributed commit.
A reading of the public paper. Not a copy, not a benchmark, and not a claim about any later network.
A sharded contract system should say what the unit of state is and what happens when a call spans two units.
- Evidence
- Primary paper
- Re-measured
- No
- Assumptions
- 3
- Records linked
- 0
Code
Source, repository, and what is actually hosted
- arXiv:1708.03778https://arxiv.org/abs/1708.03778
- The source URL is not a GitHub repository. No code remote is invented.
- Full text is not mirrored. Public availability is not a licence to copy the file onto this site.
- Add to a reading list
01 Claim ledger
What the paper is allowed to say
Each row is a sentence already in the study. The status is the same on every row: a model claim, not a live measurement.
Claim 01 · Paper model
The defect
Sharding payments is easier than sharding contracts, because a contract call can touch objects that live on different shards.
Claim 02 · Paper model
The proposal
Chainspace shards objects, and a transaction names the objects it will read and write so the shards involved can run a distributed commit.
Claim 03 · Paper model
Objects, not only accounts, are the unit.
The transaction declares its footprint before it runs.
Claim 04 · Paper model
The bound
The paper is not a later production shard.
02 Three cuts
Observation, model, falsifier
A desk does not stop at the summary. Each claim is cut three ways, using only this study's own assumptions and checks. Nothing here is a new figure.
01 The defect
Observation
What the study says
Sharding payments is easier than sharding contracts, because a contract call can touch objects that live on different shards.
Model
What has to hold
Declared footprints do not help if the implementation lets a call touch an undeclared object.
Falsifier
What would retire it
What is the commit across shards?
02 The proposal
Observation
What the study says
Chainspace shards objects, and a transaction names the objects it will read and write so the shards involved can run a distributed commit.
Model
What has to hold
Declared footprints do not help if the implementation lets a call touch an undeclared object.
Falsifier
What would retire it
What is the commit across shards?
03 Objects, not only accounts, are the unit.
Observation
What the study says
The transaction declares its footprint before it runs.
Model
What has to hold
Auditability is not the same as a user checking every shard themselves.
Falsifier
What would retire it
How is a lying shard detected?
04 The bound
Observation
What the study says
The paper is not a later production shard.
Model
What has to hold
The paper is not a later production shard.
Falsifier
What would retire it
How is a lying shard detected?
03 Sequence
One action, as an operating tape
- 01Place objects on shards.
- 02A transaction lists the objects it needs.
- 03The involved shards commit or abort together.
- 04What is the commit across shards?
04 Load-bearing
The argument, and where a pitch drops it
What the paper is for
The cut
A sharded contract system should say what the unit of state is and what happens when a call spans two units.
Why it carries weight
If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.
Where it is dropped
A later client, parameter or reward formula is a different object from this paragraph.
What happened after
The cut
Later sharded contract systems inherit the footprint idea more often than they inherit the whole protocol.
Why it carries weight
If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.
Where it is dropped
The paper is not a later production shard.
05 Register
What has to be true
Model · Not re-measured
The paper is not a later production shard.
Model · Not re-measured
Declared footprints do not help if the implementation lets a call touch an undeclared object.
Model · Not re-measured
Auditability is not the same as a user checking every shard themselves.
06 Divergence
What happened after the paper
Later sharded contract systems inherit the footprint idea more often than they inherit the whole protocol.
A later client, parameter set, or reward formula is a different object. Cite this paper for the mechanism. Cite a primary release for the network. This desk has not re-run the proof.
07 Pre-mortem
What to check before you use the idea
- 0 of 3 marked on this browser. A mark is a reading note, not a pass, a rating, or a recommendation.
08 Anatomy
The paper, in the order a builder needs
The problem it names
Sharding payments is easier than sharding contracts, because a contract call can touch objects that live on different shards.
What the design proposes
- Objects, not only accounts, are the unit.
- The transaction declares its footprint before it runs.
- A dishonest shard should be detectable by an audit in the paper's design.
How the mechanism is specified
- Place objects on shards.
- A transaction lists the objects it needs.
- The involved shards commit or abort together.
What this page does not treat as proven
- The paper is not a later production shard.
- Declared footprints do not help if the implementation lets a call touch an undeclared object.
- Auditability is not the same as a user checking every shard themselves.
Why the desk still reads it
A sharded contract system should say what the unit of state is and what happens when a call spans two units.
09 Lexicon
Terms, opened into the record
- Object
- A piece of contract state with a home shard.
- Footprint
- The set of objects a transaction declares it will touch.
10 Repository
Every linked record on this page
Underlined words open a page that already exists: a concept, a protocol profile, a failure record, or another paper. If a word is not underlined, this desk does not have a record for it.
No repository match in this text.
This is Blockchain Lab's reading of a public design paper. It is not the paper, not a copy of it, and not an offer of tokens, equity, custody or a partnership. Later network behaviour can diverge from the text. Nothing here is investment, legal or technical advice.
Research status: Design paper. Last reviewed: 1 October 2026. This is a reading of a public paper, not investment, legal or security advice.