What is Solana Virtual Machine (SVM)?
What is Solana Virtual Machine (SVM)
Solana Virtual Machine is the execution environment for smart contracts on the Solana blockchain. Solana enables the blockchain to process thousands of transactions per second.
A virtual machine is a software emulation of a computer system that executes smart contracts in a secure environment.
Solana VM is written in the Rust programming language and runs a parallel processing model for applications. According to the developers, this provides greater performance and network capacity.
Smart contracts are an important part of blockchain. Originally, blockchains were designed as a giant alternative payment network for one-way transactions between peers. Enabled by the creation of blockchain virtual machines (VMs), smart contracts will be built on top of blockchains. From then on, blockchain became a base layer on which anything could be built.
Ethereum has developed the first instance of a virtual machine for blockchain technology. The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) has seen broad adoption, with popular Layer 1 blockchains like BNB Smart Chain, Avalanche, and Tron being built as a fork of EVM, not to mention many EVM-compatible Layer 2s being built today. Through EVM, developers can easily port existing applications onto EVM-compatible blockchains with minimal code changes.
However, the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), one of the newest prototypes of a virtual machine built to power smart contract blockchains, is emerging as a competitor. According to the developers, Solana VM was built from the ground up with technologies focused on high performance and overall agility.
Understanding Solana Virtual Machine (SVM),
Solana Virtual Machine handles smart contract transactions for the Solana blockchain. Built with the Rust programming language, developers claim that SVM is tuned for high-demand conditions and designed to process transactions in the most efficient way. As a virtual machine, SVM operates as a virtualized processing machine tasked with the role of handling smart contract deployment, transactions, and other requests from those contracts.
These transactions are state change requests, for which the Solana VM calculates the requests and updates the overall state of the blockchain after each run. In summary, SVM is the execution environment of the Solana blockchain. It acts in synergy with the consensus layer of the Solana blockchain to provide a dynamic network for building and running Web3 applications.
SVM supports various smart contract applications, including GameFi, DeFi applications and other decentralized applications. Like EVM, Solana VM is a modular machine that can be deployed with other components; data availability/consensus layer, creating decentralized networks with little or no change to its original form.
To better understand Solana VM, let's take a look at what a Virtual Machine actually is.
What is a Virtual Machine?
Virtual machines (VMs) are a software emulation of a computer system that can run an operating system along with the installation and execution of applications. Traditionally, users ran VM as sandbox environments completely isolated from host operating systems.
While traditional virtual machines are isolated virtual boxes, blockchain virtual machines act as the execution layer of the network for decentralized applications. Blockchain VMs are decentralized, where nodes in the network run an instance of the blockchain's virtual machine on their devices, calculate state changes, and monitor state changes suggested by other validators to achieve consensus, ensuring transaction records are properly recorded on the network.
How Solana Virtual Machine Works
Blockchain users are always looking for secure blockchain networks that allow them to make transactions as quickly as possible while paying the cheapest possible fees. Solana VM was developed to meet the production desires of blockchain users and developers, balancing the blockchain trinity of decentralization, scalability and security.
The parallel processing model is at the heart of Solana VM's operation. By configuring the blockchain to process multiple transactions simultaneously rather than sequentially, Solana can deliver higher throughput while ensuring scalability.
MakerDAO
The MakerDAO community is on the verge of transitioning to a new chain, a complete reimplementation of the entire Maker Protocol built natively on a new, independent blockchain.
While this is still in the community governance phase, a little information is already available. This includes MakerDAO co-founder Rune Christensen's choice of the Solana codebase as the prototype for the project's new chain. In a proposal submitted to the community by Rune, Solana cited the blockchain's resilience between the FTX exchange crash and its optimization for a singular operation, citing the high-throughput blockchain as the main reason why the network chose the codebase as its top choice.
Based on the community post, Cosmos is the other main contender, with a history of successful implementations using the Cosmos stack. However, he emphasizes that “ Cosmos is not built around efficiency at its core in the same way as Solana, which means it will cost more to maintain and maintain performance. ”
If the project eventually decides to adopt the Solana network codebase as the standard for NewChain, this will serve as a bold statement of the positive impression Solana VM has made on blockchain projects. Reiterating his preference for Solana Codebase, Rune stated that developing a blockchain network with the Solana codebase will enable Maker to benefit from the flexibility of the Solana blockchain and community. Additionally, MakerDAO will have access to a large pool of developers and resources to enable it to grow faster. The network will also create a communication path with the Solana network using bridges.
Efficiency: TPS and Transaction Fee,
From information obtained from official network explorers, Solana network transaction speed is over 2400 TP and transaction fees are as low as $0.001. Compared to EVM networks, the Basic Network with a transaction speed of approximately 47 TPS and the Solana network with a transaction fee of approximately $0.03 show significantly higher cost and time efficiency. The Solana network can also exceed 60,000 TPS, although this is subject to network conditions. After implementing EIP-4844, Base Network's $0.03 transaction fee is an improvement on the transaction fee on the mainnet blockchain, but still below the cost-effectiveness of the Solana blockchain.
Solana Virtual Machine prioritizes high throughput; A feature sought by a large portion of blockchain developers. It was built to deliver faster and at a lower cost than most other processing machines, which has contributed immensely to the overall popularity of the Solana blockchain.
While the Solana network is now gaining success and adoption, we are seeing early adoption of Solana VM by other projects, similar to the previous path taken by EVM. These projects either build directly on those achieved by the Solana network or build their own stacks using other modular components.
This article attempts to give readers an idea of what Solana VM actually is and how it works. However, it does not cover every aspect of Solana VM and its related projects. Having said that, keep in mind that this article is for educational purposes only and is not financial advice. Featured projects are not endorsed and users should always do their own research before investing in any cryptocurrency.
