The execution layer is fragmenting in interesting ways. EVM dominance made sense when there was one chain. Now we have options and the tradeoffs matter.
Move-based VMs offer different safety guarantees. Resource-oriented programming catches bugs the EVM allows. The type system prevents entire classes of exploits. Different paradigm, different strengths.
SolanaVM optimizes for parallelism from the ground up. Explicit state access declarations enable aggressive optimization. The programming model is different but the throughput gains are real.
WASM as an execution target keeps gaining traction. Compile from any language, run anywhere. The tooling ecosystem is massive. Portability across chains becomes easier.
The interesting question is cross-VM composability. How do contracts on different VMs interact? Message passing works but loses atomicity. The boundaries create friction.
I think we'll see specialized VMs for specialized use cases. Gaming VMs optimized for state updates. DeFi VMs optimized for arithmetic precision. The general purpose VM handles everything else.
Keep reading
- Client Diversity Matters More
One bug in a dominant client could halt the network. Diversity isn't just nice to have, it's existential.
- Parallel EVM Is Real
Multiple transactions executing simultaneously. The EVM finally learns to use more than one core.
- The Trilemma Still Holds
Decentralization, security, scalability - pick two. Years of research shifted the tradeoffs but didn't eliminate them.