Efficient Script Validation

Understanding the process and performance requirements for validating ErgoTree scripts in blockchain transactions.

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Transaction Validation Context

For a transaction that has an INPUTS collection of boxes to spend, each input box can have a script (termed as the propositionBytes property) that protects it. This script needs to be executed within the context of the current transaction. To maintain steady block validation of 1000 transactions per second, a simple transaction with a single input box requires validation of 1000 scripts per second.

Mining Optimization

To increase the probability of successful mining, the block validation time should be minimized. This allows a miner to start solving the PoW puzzle as soon as possible.

Validation Steps

To validate every script (of an input box), the following steps are performed:

  1. A Context object is created with SELF = box.
  2. ErgoTree is traversed to build a cost graph for cost estimation.
  3. The cost estimation is computed by evaluating the cost graph with the current context.
  4. If the cost is within the limit, the ErgoTree is evaluated using the context to obtain a sigma proposition (see SigmaProp).
  5. The Sigma protocol verification procedure is executed.