Fully On-Chain

A core security property where the application's logic and state cannot be unilaterally altered or taken offline by any single entity, including its developers. This is enforced by the decentralized consensus of the underlying blockchain's validator set. Once deployed, the smart contract code is immutable, and state changes require network-wide agreement.

Ensures all data necessary to reconstruct the application's state is permanently stored and verifiable on the blockchain's ledger. This contrasts with hybrid models that rely on off-chain servers. Key mechanisms include:

• Full Node Archival: Historical data is retained by nodes.
• State Pruning: While some nodes prune old state, the entire history remains accessible via archival nodes or services like Etherscan.
• Data Sharding: Protocols like Ethereum's Danksharding aim to scale data availability for rollups while maintaining cryptographic guarantees.

The cost required to attack or reverse the application's state is tied to the blockchain's cryptoeconomic security. For Proof of Work (e.g., Bitcoin), this is the hashrate; for Proof of Stake (e.g., Ethereum), it's the total value staked. Finality (the point where a transaction is irreversible) provides a strong guarantee. For example, Ethereum's consensus provides single-slot finality, making reorgs extremely costly after confirmation.

While the blockchain provides execution security, the application's safety depends entirely on its smart contract code. Risks are not from the chain itself but from:

• Logic Bugs: Flaws in the contract's programmed rules.
• Vulnerabilities: Reentrancy, integer overflows, or access control issues.
• Upgradeability Risks: If the contract uses proxy patterns, the upgrade mechanism becomes a central point of failure. Security is maximized by immutable contracts that have undergone extensive formal verification and auditing.

The application's liveness and neutrality depend on the health of the underlying network. Key factors include:

• Validator Decentralization: A distributed set of operators prevents collusion.
• Client Diversity: Multiple independent software implementations (e.g., Geth, Erigon, Nethermind for Ethereum) reduce the risk of a single bug crashing the network.
• Geographic Distribution: Validators spread across jurisdictions enhance censorship resistance.

The guarantee that the application will remain functional and accessible indefinitely, without reliance on a specific company or server. This is achieved through:

• Protocol-Level Permanence: The blockchain's continued operation.
• Sufficient Decentralization: Ensuring no single party can sunset the application.
• Economic Sustainability: Transaction fees or embedded mechanisms fund ongoing network security. True LTS is the defining advantage over traditional, server-dependent software.

A cryptographic state machine whose rules are entirely defined and enforced by smart contracts on a public blockchain. This is the philosophical and architectural goal of fully on-chain applications, creating persistent digital worlds with unstoppable logic and verifiable state. Key characteristics include:

• Deterministic Execution: Identical inputs produce identical outputs for all participants.
• Permissionless Participation: Anyone can interact with or extend the world's rules.
• Censorship Resistance: No single entity can alter the core rules or halt the application.

The complete set of data representing the current condition of a blockchain application. In a fully on-chain system, all essential state (e.g., player positions, game items, financial balances) is stored directly on the blockchain's ledger. This contrasts with hybrid models where critical state is held off-chain in centralized servers. On-chain state is:

• Transparent: Publicly auditable by anyone.
• Immutable: Historical state cannot be altered.
• Sovereign: Controlled by the protocol's code, not a corporate database.

The encoded rules that govern how an application's state can change. Fully on-chain systems deploy this logic as smart contracts (e.g., on Ethereum) or canister code (on ICP). This makes the application's core gameplay, financial mechanics, or governance rules unstoppable and trust-minimized. Key aspects are:

• Verifiable: The code is open-source and its execution is validated by the network.
• Deterministic: Execution outcomes are guaranteed and reproducible.
• Composable: On-chain logic can be permissionlessly integrated by other contracts, enabling an ecosystem of extensions.

The guarantee that the data necessary to validate a blockchain's state is published and accessible to all network participants. For fully on-chain applications, data availability is provided by the underlying L1 or L2 blockchain. This is a critical distinction from validiums or certain rollups, where transaction data is stored off-chain, creating a dependency on external committees or servers. Robust DA ensures:

• Censorship Resistance: No one can hide transaction data to prevent validation.
• Security: Full nodes can independently verify the chain's history.
• Decentralization: Reduces reliance on trusted data providers.

The ability for any user to independently verify the correctness of an application's state and execution using only the data published on-chain. This is a core property enabled by fully on-chain architecture. A user runs a light client or full node to:

• Download the chain's block headers and relevant transaction data.
• Re-execute the smart contract logic from the genesis block or a recent checkpoint.
• Cryptographically prove that the current application state is the only valid outcome. This eliminates the need to trust the word of a central server or operator.

The most prominent application domain for fully on-chain principles. These are games where all core assets (NFTs), rules, and state transitions exist on-chain. Pioneered by projects like Dark Forest and Loot Survivor, this paradigm enables:

• True Digital Ownership: In-game assets are user-controlled in their wallet, not a company account.
• Interoperability & Composable Economies: Assets and logic can be used across different games and applications.
• Player-Driven Evolution: The community can fork the game or build new experiences on top of its open-state, without the developer's permission.