State Chain

The state chain is a deterministic replicated state machine for DAO governance and network configuration. It is separate from the block lattice -- while the lattice is an account-per-chain DAG, the state chain is a single linear chain of blocks containing key-value operations signed by a quorum of DAO members.

#Purpose

The block lattice handles asset transfers and compute leasing. The state chain handles everything else:

• DAO keyset management -- which public keys can sign governance decisions, and how many are needed (quorum threshold).
• Timekeeper configuration -- which nodes are trusted to attest timestamps for lease operations.
• Network parameters -- emission rates, difficulty targets, and other protocol settings.
• Governance decisions -- any key-value data the DAO needs to publish to the network.

#Architecture

┌───────────────────────────────────────────────┐│                  State Chain                   │├───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┤│ Block │ Block │ Block │ Block │ Block │ Block ││   0   │   1   │   2   │   3   │   4   │   5   ││genesis│       │       │       │       │  tip  │└───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┘    │       │       │       │       │       │    ▼       ▼       ▼       ▼       ▼       ▼┌───────────────────────────────────────────────┐│              In-Memory KV Store               ││  sys.dao_keyset → {keys:[...], threshold:2}   ││  sys.timekeepers → {keys:[...], threshold:1}  ││  config.param_x → "value"                     │└───────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Each block contains one or more operations (set or delete) that modify the KV store. When a block is applied, its ops update the in-memory state. The KV store is rebuilt on startup by replaying all blocks from genesis.

#Key properties

• Linear. One chain, one tip. No forks under normal operation (forks trigger a callback for alerting).
• Multisig. Every block must be signed by at least Threshold distinct keys from the current DAOKeyset.
• Self-referential. The DAO keyset is itself stored in the KV store under sys.dao_keyset. The keyset can be updated by the keyset -- governance evolves itself.
• Deterministic. Every node replays the same blocks and arrives at the same KV state. No non-deterministic inputs.
• Separate storage. State chain blocks are stored independently from lattice blocks in the backing store.

#Comparison with the block lattice

#Related pages

• Governance -- DAO keyset, multisig validation, chain mechanics
• Operations -- set/delete operations and the KV store
• Sync -- state chain synchronisation between peers