evm

Daily gas spent on EVM inscriptions surges to record high of $8M

Bitcoin is not the only network getting clogged up with Ordinals inscriptions, with weekend activity on EVM chains also spiking.

Network transaction fees across all blockchains have spiked over the weekend as the Ordinals inscriptions craze continues to push demand for blockspace — and not just on the Bitcoin network.

Inscriptions on Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains skyrocketed over the weekend, causing a spike in gas fees.

On Dec. 16, gas spent on inscriptions surged to a record high of $8.3 million, according to data from Dune Analytics.

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Uniswap proposal to launch on Polygon zkEVM is set to pass

All 191 UNI token holders voted in favor of the proposal to launch the DEX on Polygon’s zkEVM.

Decentralized exchange Uniswap is seemingly set to launch on the new zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) roll-up solution from scaling solution provider Polygon.

While Uniswap (UNI) tokenholders have until April 14 at 9:05 pm UTC to vote on the proposal to launch Uniswap v3 on the zkEVM, the 40 million vote threshold needed for the proposal to pass has already been reached, with over 42.4 million votes recorded in favor of the integration.

All 191 Ethereum addresses voted in favor of the proposal, with financial modeling platform Gauntlet and Ethereum infrastructure provider ConsenSys leading with over 7 million votes each, according to Tally, a voting dashboard for decentralized finance projects.

Top votes in favor of integrating Uniswap v3 on Polygon zkEVM. Source: Tally

The author of the proposal, Polygon Business Development Lead Jack Melnick, argued that now is the “right moment” to make Uniswap v3 available on Polygon’s zkEVM because it is “EVM equivalent” — meaning that there is no need to recompile EVM smart contracts:

“There’s significant value in Uniswap being available on an EVM compatible ZK rollup. Deploying early on zkEVM helps solidify Uniswap’s place as the number one DEX and a thought leader.”

The integration will also provide validation and fast finality for off-chain transactions, said Melnick.

In addition, the high level of adoption that Polygon has managed to harness makes integrating on Polygon’s zkEVM a “priority,” he explained.

As for what factors will make this deployment a boom or bust, Melnick pointed to several key on-chain metrics:

“A successful zkEVM deployment will, in an organic and sustained manner, grow Uniswap’s Total Addressable Market across TVL, unique interacting wallet, volumes, and integration with partner dApps.”

“As demand for zk-blockchains and proximity to Ethereum rises, users and builders will increasingly look to zkEVM solutions to build and trade,” he added.

Melnick is confident the integration will pose “minimal risks” at least “relative” to other blockchains because the Polygon zkEVM uses zero-knowledge proofs to inherit Ethereum’s security.

The Polygon Bridge has been “disintermediated,” and data will be sourced from “reputable” oracle providers, Melnick added, which he expects will only strengthen security at the protocol level.

Polygon’s zkEVM had its official mainnet launch on March 27.

Related: Uniswap’s first governance vote fails… Despite 98% support

In a similar move, Uniswap v3 integrated with the BNB Chain — a smart contract blockchain built by Binance — on March 15.

The governance vote wasn’t as stark though, with only 65% voting in favor of the proposal.

United States venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) — the largest UNI token holder — voted against the BNB proposal with its 15 million UNI tokens.

Magazine: ZK-rollups are ‘the endgame’ for scaling blockchains, Polygon Miden founder

Chiliz launches layer-1 blockchain to expand fan token ecosystem

Fan token platform Chiliz validates the genesis block of its new layer-1 EVM-compatible blockchain to mark its five-year anniversary.

Five years from its inception, fan token platform Chiliz has launched its own layer-1 Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible blockchain ecosystem to support its growth.

Chiliz’s fan token ecosystem has long been powered by Ethereum-based ERC-20 tokens, but the validation of the Chiliz 2.0 blockchain genesis block sees the ecosystem shift to its own layer 1. 

The new blockchain uses a system of 11 active validators with proof-of-stake authority consensus, which is touted to provide faster block times, lower fees and energy usage. 

According to the project’s documentation, Chiliz Chain 2.0 is a hard fork of BNB Chain, a go-to Ethereum fork. This means that the new layer-1 is EVM compatible, which is aimed to attract decentralized application developers to build within the environment.

Chiliz has made waves in the sports and entertainment space through its fan token app, Socios. The platform works with some of the biggest teams and brands in the sporting world, with major football teams like Barcelona, PSG, Manchester City, Arsenal and Juventus making use of its fan token platform.

Related: Socios boss’ goal? To knock crypto out of the park

The platform allows brands, teams and individuals to mint nonfungible tokens (NFTs), fan tokens and Web3-ready tickets, as well as develop DApps and Web3-based experiences and products.

Cointelegraph spoke to Socios CEO Alexandre Dreyfus back in November 2022 at Web Summit in Lisbon about the upcoming launch of the Chiliz ‘2.0’ Blockchain. As he explained back then, the Chiliz chain already existed but was deliberately kept as a private ecosystem to protect intellectual property. At the time of that conversation, it had over 1.7 million wallets that participated in the issuance, minting and trading of fan tokens.

Dreyfus also pointed out the importance of Ethereum in providing the basis of its current ecosystem in correspondence on Feb. 9, highlighting both iterations of the Chiliz blockchain being forks of Ethereum:

“We use the technology as a foundation, but we adjust it and enhance it for our needs, which is the protection of the IP and the sports property we are working with.”

The launch of Chiliz 2.0 marks the transition to a “real open layer 1,“ Dreyfus told Cointelegraph, with on-chain governance holding the power to whitelist certain nodes and developers to issue assets.

“What does it mean? It means that you cannot have a fake NFT, a fake fan token or whatever.”

The CEO said that a patient approach, which allowed brands and franchises to maintain control of their image and property rights, was an important factor in the growth of its ecosystem over the past five years. The launch of the Chiliz blockchain is also aimed at handing back value to ecosystem participants:

“It’s a chain where mainly sports brands are going to govern, let’s say Barcelona or PSG, are going to become a node and stake their CHZ to get rewards and participate in the growth of the network.”

The sports industry continues to see synergies with blockchain-based firms. In January 2023, blockchain fantasy sports firm Sorare sealed a deal with the English Premier League to mint Ethereum-based digital player cards on its platform.

ConsenSys launches zkEVM private beta testnet

The software has received over 150,000 signups so far.

Web3 ecosystem developer ConsenSys unveiled its zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) network for private beta testing via a blog post on Dec. 13. Designed and operated by ConsenSys, developers can deploy and manage decentralized applications using tools such as MetaMask, Truffle and Infura as if they were using the EVM directly. In addition, users can bridge assets between the Goerli testnet and the zkEVM to test their smart contracts and decentralized applications, or DApps. 

“Testnet participants can also bridge tokens, transfer tokens, and interact with deployed dApps listed on our upcoming ecosystem portal page. We intend to learn whether the developer experience of the zkEVM has the potential to accelerate innovation in Web3 and will be evaluating feedback from the community to inform our next step.”

For years, ConsenSys has been working to wrap EVM computation in zero-knowledge proofs to create a zkEVM, as opposed to creating zk-Rollups on networks separate from the EVM. Zero-knowledge technology verifies transactions on a separate layer and sends computation back to Ethereum without sending back the entire data. By simply providing proof that everything was correctly computed on layer 2 and putting a succinct proof back to the blockchain, Ethereum developers estimate that rollup solutions such as Optimism can increase scalability by upward of 100x.

User onboarding for the new ConsenSys zkEVM will begin in January 2023. ConsenSys said there are currently no details regarding how early testers will be rewarded or if there will be a newly issued token tied to the zkEVM.

What is an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and how does it work?

Forming the backbone of the Ethereum Blockchain, EVM provides developers with a run-time environment to build DApps and other applications.

Ether (ETH), which is the second largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization, is popular among cryptocurrency investors because of its native ETH token. However, its native Solidity programming language and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) are instrumental in the adulation it receives from the developer community. In fact, the Ethereum blockchain continues to attract decentralized application (DApp) developers due to its flexibility, the vast range of developer tools available and the platform’s large user base.

Forming the core of the blockchain’s architecture, the EVM is the program that executes its application code or smart contracts, as they are called, providing a run-time environment for them that runs on top of the Ethereum network. What’s more, the EVM is Turing-complete and can thus run any program coded in any programming language, thereby allowing developers to easily create custom smart contracts and DApps for the burgeoning Web3 space. 

In addition to these important functionalities, EVM has access to all nodes in the network, handles smart contracts execution and effectively handles all transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, making it one of the most powerful virtual machines in existence today.

What is Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and how does it work?

Conceptualized in 2013 by programmer Vitalik Buterin, the Ethereum network owes its phenomenal success as the preferred blockchain for DApp developers to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) that was designed by Gavin Wood during his tenure at Ethereum. Written in C++ and using the LLVM Project compiler, EVM is a special state machine that operates continuously and whose immutable operations determine the state of each block in the Ethereum blockchain. 

The EVM not only governs what nodes can or cannot do to the distributed ledger maintained by the Ethereum blockchain but also defines the specific rules of changing state from block to block. The latter functionality is what enables the smart contract functionality that Ethereum has come to be known for.

To understand what an Ethereum Virtual Machine does, one needs to look at each of the different functions it serves in ensuring the smooth operation of the Ethereum network. For every input that it receives, the EVM produces an output that is deterministic in nature and follows a mathematical function in the simplest sense. 

Operating like a stack machine that pushes transient values to and from a pushdown stack, the EVM has a depth of 1024 items, with each of them being a 256-bit word. It also maintains a temporary memory in the form of a byte array, which changes between two transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. Smart contract codes that have been compiled are executed by the EVM in the form of a collection of 140 standard opcodes, while other blockchain-specific stack operations are also implemented by it.

Schematics of an Ethereum Virtual Machine

Thus, the EVM has a machine state that is volatile by nature during the processing of any transaction and a global or world state that contains information regarding the different accounts maintained on the Ethereum blockchain. All actions are governed by the EVM code, which in itself has gone through several iterations since the launch of the Ethereum network in 2015, leading to the existence of different implementations of the EVM currently in use.

In fact, the EVM is responsible for maintaining a level of abstraction between thousands of Ethereum nodes and the executing code, acting as a function that delivers consistent results without divulging many details to clients or nodes.

What is the purpose of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)?

The EVM has been reliably powering all applications running on the Ethereum network without any major downtime reported. For developers, the EVM acts as the overarching program that runs smaller executable programs which are known as smart contracts in Ethereum, while providing them the freedom to write these smart contracts in a variety of programming languages including Solidity, Vyper, Python and Yul, among others.

Due to this flexibility offered by the EVM, the Ethereum blockchain has spawned thousands of DApps in the decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible token (NFT) space. Each of these DApps and the smart contracts that they are made of are converted into bytecode that is fed into the EVM and distributed among all nodes in the Ethereum network. When a smart contract is deployed, the EVM is responsible for communicating with all nodes and effecting state changes when a consensus has been arrived at.

It can be said that the EVM is inserted inside every Ethereum node to execute smart contracts using bytecode instead of the base programming language, thus isolating the physical host computer from the machine code on which Ethereum runs.

Benefits of Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)

On account of the way in which the EVM operates, developers can execute code without worrying about its impact on the rest of the network or the possibility of it playing truant with data or personal files hosted on any of the node computers. 

Additionally, they can run complex smart contracts on different computing environments with distributed consensus. This ensures that the failure of a single node does not have any negative impact on the running of the DApp or smart contract, since the EVM code remains the same across all nodes. Moreover, since account data is maintained at a global level in the EVM, developers find it perfect for writing custom smart contract code and creating distinct DApps that can access this global data set and produce reliable outputs. 

The sanctity of the outcome is what makes the EVM, in particular, and the Ethereum blockchain in general well-suited to the sustainable expansion of the DApps and smart contract Ethereum ecosystem. Add to this the library of standard codes available for developers to choose from, an increasing number of EVM-compatible layer-2 blockchains and a large number of potential EVM use cases possible, and it is easy to see why the EVM is the preferred platform for Web3 development.

Drawbacks of Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)

Despite the many advantages offered by the EVM, there are certain downsides that need to be considered by developers and entrepreneurs building on Ethereum. The most important of these is the high transaction fees or gas costs associated with running a smart contract on the Ethereum network. 

Paid in ETH, these fees vary depending on the complexity of the contract and the network congestion at the time of execution, making it imperative for developers and entrepreneurs to price their services accordingly. Additionally, since Solidity is the most preferred language for coding on the EVM, it does imply that developers need to have adequate experience with it and possess a modicum of technical expertise to create efficient smart contracts by using it. 

The latter is important since any additional computation requirement will lead to higher gas costs and ultimately prove detrimental to the project’s success. If developers choose to code using other languages, they need to be careful in resolving any inherent repetitions in the code since the EVM will proceed to compile them anyway. While upgrading smart contracts is possible at a later stage, it comes with security risks associated with creating an intermediary smart contract that references the address of the original smart contract.

The future of EVMs

Notwithstanding the revolutionary changes brought about by the EVM to the blockchain ecosystem, this technology for reading and executing code is being improved upon by a number of blockchain projects. 

With cross-chain interoperability being the most important aspect for developers, many EVM-compatible blockchains have propped up, with most offering lower gas and faster transaction speeds than the Ethereum protocol. As a result, these blockchains are now able to interact with Ethereum users seamlessly and are facilitating fund transfers to their own networks using blockchain bridges.

However, with the Ethereum protocol successfully completing the Merge in September 2022, the next target is to shift from EVM to Ethereum WebAssembly (eWASM). Designed to be highly modular and platform-independent, eWASM is being touted as the next game-changer for the Ethereum protocol and could motivate other blockchains to employ this run-time environment for smart contracts as well. However, whether eWASMs will replace the EVM as the most trusted mechanism for smart contracts is a question that only time will answer.