Verifying computations with state

Benjamin Braun, Ariel J. Feldman, Zuocheng Ren, Srinath T. V. Setty, Andrew J. Blumberg, Michael Walfish

Abstract: When a client outsources a job to a third party (e.g., the cloud), how can the client check the result, without reexecuting the computation? Recent work in _proof-based verifiable computation_ has made significant progress on this problem by incorporating deep results from complexity theory and cryptography into built systems. However, these systems work within a stateless model: they exclude computations that interact with RAM or a disk, or for which the client does not have the full input. This paper describes Pantry, a built system that overcomes these limitations. Pantry composes proof-based verifiable computation with untrusted storage: the client expresses its computation in terms of digests that attest to state, and verifiably outsources _that_ computation. Using Pantry, we extend verifiability to MapReduce jobs, simple database queries, and interactions with private state. Thus, Pantry takes another step toward practical proof-based verifiable computation for realistic applications.