OneBlock+ Follow Jun 21
· 6 min read
What is Web Assembly (WASM)? WebAssembly is a new type of code that can be run in modern web browsers — it is a low-level assembly-like language with a compact binary format that runs with near-native performance and provides languages such as C/C++, C# and Rust with a compilation target so that they can run on the web.It is also designed to run alongside JavaScript, allowing both to work together.
Web Assembly provides a way for client-side apps to run code written in multiple languages at near-native speed on a web platform; WebAssembly gains significant performance benefits and new features while keeping features easy to use for web developers.”
As an ideal replacement for EVM, WASM was created to bring a fast, efficient and portable virtual machine solution that can execute at “near-native speed” using common hardware features.It is also very user-friendly and easy for developers to read and debug, allowing them to view, write and debug code manually.It can also be secured by enhancing the host browser’s permission policy and maintaining backward compatibility.
What is “EWASM”? As its name suggests, EWASM (Ethereum WebAssembly) is WebAssembly for Ethereum 2.0.
EWASM will help create a fast, scalable and flexible ecosystem that encourages developers to build complex smart contracts on the Ethereum 2.0 protocol.
EVM VS WASM (EWASM) One of the highlight innovations of Ethereum’s 2.0 upgrade in 2020 is the EWASM generated based on WASM.This means that somehow WASM becomes the new paradigm of virtual machines and its points of advantage can be analyzed from several perspectives:
WASM has a faster speed.WASM is able to convert directly to compiled code, which makes it faster to load, while increasing the number of transactions processed per block.The faster speed results in a significant increase in transaction throughput, while reducing costs and solving the pain point of high gas on Ethereum.
2.WASM reduces and will even eliminate the reliance on pre-compilation (pre-compiled contracts).
Because WASM is so efficient, developers can create efficient, fast smart contracts without fear of a potential hard bifurcation.In fact, while Ethereum 2.0 still relies on regular hard forks for upgrades, PoC uses the WASM meta-protocol to allow chain upgrades without a hard fork.
3.WASM has higher flexibility and interoperability, supports more languages, and offers a broader toolset than EVM.WASM supports legacy languages such as Rust, C and C++.
WASM is also supported by native JavaScript engines such as Google’s V8 engine (Node.js and Chromium browsers), Microsoft’s Chakra engine (Microsoft Edge), and Mozilla’s Spidermonkey engine (Thunderbird and Firefox).
WASM in Polkadot As you can see from the above advantages, WASM nicely compensates for the shortcomings of EVM and brings a better virtual machine paradigm to blockchain and developers.With interoperability as a key feature, Polkadot has built WASM support from the ground up, and Polkadot’s smart contracts will be able to be developed in any language compiled for WASM.It is also compatible with EVM, bringing more combinability, in line with the dual parallelism between WASM and EVM that will continue for a long time.
As mentioned earlier, WASM also enables Polkadot to perform none bifurcation upgrades, allowing for cost-effective technology upgrades and innovations.By using WASM in Substrate, Polkadot and its many parallel chains such as Kusama can upgrade their runtime logic without hard bifurcation, effectively solving the existing problems of slow, inefficient, and error-prone hard bifurcation without the complexity of packaging multiple upgrades into a single event.The advantages of WASM deployment of Polkadot are obvious, i.e., upgrades can be small, independent, and specific, bringing higher controllability and operability.
Conclusion EVM is the foundation for deploying and hosting smart contracts for Ethereum and other EVM blockchains.
It is also the virtual machine paradigm for many EVM blockchains, bringing about the rapid development of the blockchain industry with a unified standard, providing developers with the basic settings for deploying Dapp, and bringing users with experiences of numerous functions and applications.With the passage of time, it is inevitable that WASM will evolve and replace EVM.
The choice of WASM by Polkadot has also shown us the future direction of blockchain — easier and lower threshold for smart contract development, developers can develop smart contracts with the language they have mastered, blockchains can have higher scalability and more convenient upgrade methods, and we look forward to a friendly and open future with technological innovation.
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