State Machine

TRON operates as a distributed state machine. This architecture allows for the execution of complex and customizable functions through smart contracts, making TRON a formidable platform for building decentralized applications (dApps). Let’s delve into the technical details of TRON‘s state machine and its key components.

Transitions

At the heart of TRON’s distributed state machine is the Transaction Virtual Machine (TVM), which behaves like a mathematical function. Given an input, it produces a deterministic output, making it a state transition function denoted as:

Y(S, T) = S'

where:
  Y = State transition function
  S = Old state
  T = New set of valid transactions
  S'= New valid state

The TVM, and, in essence, also the above function are responsible for processing transactions, executing smart contracts, and updating the internal state of the TRON network.

Creation

Contract creation in the TRON network results in the creation of a new contract account containing compiled smart contract bytecode. This bytecode is stored on the blockchain and can be executed by the TVM whenever another account makes a message call to that contract account.

Opcodes

Compiled smart contract bytecode in TRON executes as a series of opcodes. These opcodes execute standard stack operations like XOR, AND, ADD, SUB, etc. Additionally, the machine implements a range of blockchain-specific stack operations, such as ADDRESS, BALANCE, BLOCKHASH, and others, to enable smart contract functionality.

Execution

TRON executes smart contract bytecode utilizing a stack machine known as the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). The EVM operates with a depth of 1024 items, with each item being a 256-bit word. This choice of word size aligns with the use of 256-bit cryptography, such as Keccak-256 (SHA-3) hashes or secp256k1 signatures, for enhanced security capabilities.