Executable Models and Instance Tracking for Decentralized Applications -- Towards an Architecture Based on Blockchains and Cloud Platforms

Abstract: The execution of decentralized applications on blockchains is limited today by technical and organizational barriers, including scalability and the high complexity to specify execution correctly for developers as well as for domain experts in organizations. Overcoming these limitations could allow for decentralized coordination beyond data, where distributed parties rely on higher-level abstractions for coordinating their actions using decentralized applications, not limited to organizations. Towards this goal, the paper at hand proposes executable models as high-level abstraction that can be observed and tracked by distributed parties. In particular, it is investigated how executable models on cloud platforms can be coupled with smart contracts for tracking their execution, concluding with an architecture as exploratory research result towards supporting scalability and decentralized coordination.