Stateful Contract

A stateful contract is one that maintains persistent data on the blockchain, such as user balances or active derivative positions. In the proxy-implementation architecture, the proxy contract acts as the stateful component, while the implementation contract is stateless.

This distinction is critical because stateful contracts are difficult to upgrade without risking data corruption. Managing stateful contracts requires strict adherence to storage layouts and migration scripts to ensure that data remains consistent across different versions of the code.

This is particularly important for financial derivatives, where the accuracy of account balances is the foundation of market trust and protocol solvency.