Decentralized and Stateful Serverless Computing on the Internet Computer Blockchain

The Internet Computer (IC) is a fast and efficient decentralized blockchain-based platform for the execution of generalpurpose applications in the form of smart contracts. In other words, the IC service is the antithesis of current serverless computing. Instead of ephemeral, stateless functions operated by a single entity, the IC offers decentralized stateful serverless computation over untrusted, independent datacenters. Developers deploy stateful canisters that serve calls either to end-users or other canisters. The IC programming model is similar to serverless clouds, with applications written in modern languages such as Rust or Python, yet simpler: state is maintained automatically, without developer intervention.

In this paper, we identify and address significant systems challenges to enable efficient decentralized stateful serverless computation: scalability, stateful execution through orthogonal persistence, and deterministic scheduling. We describe the design of the IC and characterize its operational data gathered over the past 1.5 years, and its performance.