Trustless deterministic state machine

Abstract

The invention relates to distributed ledger technologies such as consensus-based blockchains. Computer-implemented methods for a trustless, deterministic state machine are described. The invention is implemented using a blockchain network, which may be, for example, a Bitcoin blockchain. A first transaction to validate is received at a node in a blockchain network. The first transaction includes a first script that, as a result of being executed, causes the node to at least obtain a first set of field values of the first transaction, a second set of field values of a second transaction, and an input. The second transaction is obtained. The second transaction includes a second script that includes a set of rules and, as a result of being executed, causes the node to at least verify that the second script matches a third script embedded in the first set of field values, determine, based at least in part on the second set of field values, a current state, and determine, based at least in part on the current state, the input, and the set of rules, a next state. The first transaction is validated as a result of execution of the first script and the second script.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.