Non-Deterministic Operations Handling

Overview

GenLayer extends traditional smart contracts by allowing Intelligent Contracts to perform non-deterministic operations, such as interacting with Large Language Models (LLMs) and accessing web data. Handling the variability inherent in these operations is crucial for maintaining consensus across the network.

Challenges

• Variability of Outputs: Non-deterministic operations can produce different outputs when executed by different validators.
• Consensus Difficulty: Achieving consensus on varying outputs requires specialized mechanisms.

Solutions in GenLayer

• Equivalence Principle: Validators assess whether different outputs are equivalent based on predefined criteria, allowing for consensus despite variability.
• Optimistic Democracy: The consensus mechanism accommodates non-deterministic operations by allowing provisional acceptance of transactions and providing an appeals process.

Developer Considerations

• Defining Equivalence Criteria: Developers must specify what constitutes equivalent outputs in their Intelligent Contracts.
• Testing and Validation: Thorough testing is essential to ensure that non-deterministic operations behave as expected in the consensus process.