Technologies are shown for system level function based access control for smart contract execution on a blockchain. Access control rules control function calls at a system level by utilizing function boundary detection instrumentation in a kernel that executes smart contracts. The detection instrumentation generates a call stack that represents a chain of function calls in the kernel for execution of a smart contract. The access control rules are applied to the function call stack to allow or prohibit specific functions or function call chains. Access control rules can also define allowed or prohibited parameter data in the function call chain. If the function call chain or parameters do not meet the requirements defined in the access control rules, then the function call can be blocked from executing or completing execution. The access control rules can produce sophisticated access control policies based on complex function call chains.