Techniques are described for decentralized transaction processing involving digital asset transfer among heterogeneous systems including blockchains and traditional digital asset-providing services. When an application program seeks to modify the state of an asset, it typically strives to ensure that the off-chain real world asset and the digital asset on the blockchain are synchronized. This continuous synchronization is performed to prevent changes in the asset ownership on the blockchain from being conducted without a corresponding state change in the off-chain real world asset. To ensure a correct and consistent state in both the real and digital worlds, the notion of a digital twin is used where a mediating set of computers sit between the two worlds. Furthermore, since transactions in the real world may consist of multiple sub-transactions that occur across various other computers, the notion of a logical unit of work is used to unify the notion of asset-based transactions.