EVM <> MoveVM, a new design for Blockchain

Written by rootMUD

0x01 Ethereum and EVM

The Ethereum blockchain was born on July 30, 2015. Since its birth, Ethereum has been the symbol of "smart contract blockchain". After more than a decade, we can see that Ethereum has become extremely prosperous, growing a rich ecosystem of L1 + multiple L2s.

EVM is a virtual machine or runtime environment in Ethereum, responsible for acting as a container to store smart contracts and data.

However, compared to Ethereum's own constant upgrades and development, EVM has been slow to update. This is very understandable - as a major kernel that requires forward compatibility, many of the initial designs are difficult to upgrade and can only be remedied through patches.

For example, one of the major problems with EVM is that there is no way to publish a 'true standard library' on top of it for multiple contracts to reuse.

Think about it, if we were to deploy a standard ERC20 contract, then we would need to deploy a new SafeMath again.

In terms of operational efficiency, this leads to a rapid expansion of EVMs on the chain, necessitating the use of complex designs such as multiple Layers.

From a developer's point of view, it is very difficult to build "Lego-style" complex systems where on-chain smart contracts can be called on each other, thus preventing us from realizing many of the systems that we should be realizing - interoperable whole-chain gaming ecosystems, on-chain DAO systems with pluggable components, and so on and so forth.

However, one must not cross the same river ...... These flaws, which are at the EVM level, are unlikely to be realized through upgrades to Ethereum itself.

0x02 Move and MoveVM

The history of Move began in 2019, when Facebook announced its blockchain project Libra.The goal of the Libra project is to create a global digital currency and a financial infrastructure to support it.The Move language was designed to be at the heart of the Libra blockchain for developing and executing smart contracts.

Despite the initial interest in the Move language and the Libra blockchain, the Libra/Diem project has faced regulatory and policy challenges. These challenges have led to a number of adjustments to the project's goals and structure.

By 2021, Facebook (renamed Meta Platforms) and other members of the Diem Consortium decided to end the Diem project. Although the Diem project was not successfully commercialized, the concept and design of the Move language continues to be of interest to the blockchain development community.

After the Diem project ended, the Move language and related technologies were adopted and developed by the open source community. For example, emerging blockchain platforms such as Aptos have adopted the Move language, demonstrating the potential and application of Move in blockchain development.

However, the emergence of MoveVM gives us a glimpse of the possibility of revolutionizing the VM level. Just as Rust is a rethinking and refactoring of C++, MoveVM is a rethinking and refactoring of EVM.

In MoveVM, many of the issues that are debated in Ethereum are naturally absent, such as how to make an AA wallet, such as making an On-chain DAO System with pluggable components as mentioned above.

0x03 Problems with Move

The problem of Move Blockchain lies not in the technology itself, but in the Matthew effect on BTC and EVM chains, which have accumulated a large amount of capital and formed a "very strong consensus". Therefore, it is difficult for non-EVM chains such as Solana and Aptos to seize the existing share of the cake if they adopt the traditional way of thinking. Therefore, many non-EVM chains have coincidentally told a narrative -- letting Web2 users enter Web3, capturing new users instead of converting existing users.

However, this narrative is destined to be a long one. So, let's consider the question: are the benefits of EVM chains and the advantages of Move chains really incompatible?

0x04 EVM MoveVM, a new Blockchain design

We have the following views:

1/ A large amount of funds have been deposited on BTC and EVM chains, which are fully competent for the function of fund settlement and can become the fund settlement layer;

2/ Due to its superior design, the MoveVM-based chain is suitable for running complex programs and can be a program logic layer.

Therefore, by binding the addresses on the BTC and EVM chains to the addresses in the Move Blockchain in an efficient way, we can realize a two-tier architectural design that is compatible with the advantages of BTC, EVM and MoveVM.

The solution to this problem is 'decentralized digital identity'.

By decentralizing digital identities, we allow the settlement function to happen on EVM chains such as ETH, BSC, OP and various other L2s, Mapo, etc., and the runtime function to happen on Move chains such as the Aptos network.

One important technical consideration here is that MoveVM naturally supports AA wallets, which makes "no private key escrow wallet" and "private key replaceable escrow wallet" possible, thus making it possible to manage Move accounts via accounts on EVM, BTC, and more details of this design will be further disclosed in a subsequent article.