# State [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_\(computer_science\)) defines state as the following: > In [information technology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_technology) and [computer science](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_science), a system is described as **stateful** if it is designed to remember preceding events or user interactions; the remembered information is called the **state** of the system. In a traditional cloud computing architecture, the database is most likely used as state storage. In the blockchain world, the whole blockchain is a giant distributed state machine. For example, Ethereum itself is a state machine. Everytime clients send transactions to update the state, every new block means a new updated state is released. In the TEA Project, we don't store the application state in the blockchain. Instead, the state is stored in a group of [state\_machine\_replica](https://github.com/tearust/t-rust/blob/master/docs/_gitbook-dev-docs/z_glossary/state_machine_replica.md)s. We use a new [Proof of Time](/z_glossary/consensus.md#proof-of-time) hardware consensus to achieve super fast speed (relative to traditional blockchain) and processing power without sacrificing security or scalability. Please keep reading the [state machine](https://github.com/tearust/t-rust/blob/master/docs/_gitbook-dev-docs/z_glossary/state_machine.md) and [consensus](/z_glossary/consensus.md) for more details. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://dev.teaproject.org/z_glossary/state.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.