The Hidden Advantage of a Clean-Slate VM Design

EVM's native 256-bit word size is a legacy artifact from SHA-256 compatibility. It's overkill for most operations, forcing modern hardware to waste cycles.\n- Inefficient State Access: Doubles memory/stack overhead vs. 64-bit systems.\n- Wasted Gas: ~30-40% of opcode gas costs stem from 256-bit arithmetic inefficiency.\n- Hardware Mismatch: No mainstream CPU architecture natively supports 256-bit integers.

EVM's strictly sequential execution and global state model prevent concurrency, capping throughput at single-core speeds. Clean-slate VMs like Sui's Move and Aptos' Move design for parallel execution from first principles.\n- Deterministic Parallelism: Static data dependency analysis enables concurrent transaction processing.\n- Throughput Ceiling: EVM chains hit ~100-200 TPS for complex apps; parallel VMs target 10,000+ TPS.\n- Future-Proofing: Enables scaling with multi-core hardware trends.

EVM compatibility forces chains to inherit all historical vulnerabilities and attack vectors, from reentrancy to gas griefing. New VMs like Fuel's UTXO-based model or CosmWasm can architect security in from the start.\n- Known Attack Surface: $3B+ lost to reentrancy alone on EVM chains.\n- Formal Verification: Clean-slate designs (e.g., Move's resource semantics) enable provably safe asset handling.\n- Audit Burden: Every new EVM chain must re-audit the same vulnerable patterns.

Solana's SeaLevel runtime uses a Synchronous Backward-Facing Model (SBFM) that schedules all transactions before execution, enabling parallelization. EVM's JIT compilation must handle unknown states, forcing sequential processing.\n- Predictable Execution: SBFM allows known-state parallelization; EVM JIT cannot.\n- Hardware Utilization: Solana's model maps directly to GPU/TPU architectures.\n- Latency vs. Throughput: EVM optimizes for low-latency single tx; SBFM optimizes for max throughput.

The false equivalence that 'EVM = developer network'. Modern toolchains (Foundry, Hardhat) can target any VM bytecode. Clean-slate VMs can offer superior dev experience without EVM baggage.\n- Abstraction Layer: High-level languages (Move, Cairo) compile to optimized bytecode, not EVM.\n- Better Primitives: Native account abstraction, parallel modules, and secure assets improve DX.\n- Network Effect Myth: Aptos & Sui attracted $500M+ in dev grants without EVM compatibility.

Rollups and L2s are the strategic exit from the EVM tax. They use EVM for compatibility at the execution layer but are free to innovate on DA, sequencing, and proving. zkEVMs and Optimistic Rollups prove the model.\n- Execution-Only: L2s confine EVM to a sandboxed environment.\n- Innovation Frontier: Celestia for DA, EigenLayer for sequencing, Risc Zero for proving.\n- Gradual Migration: Developers can transition without abandoning the Ethereum ecosystem.

Solana's Sealevel VM is built from the ground up for parallel transaction processing, a core limitation of EVM's sequential design.

• State Access List: Transactions declare dependencies, enabling non-conflicting txns to execute simultaneously.
• Native Fee Markets: Per-account congestion pricing prevents network-wide gas spikes, unlike Ethereum's global fee model.
• Throughput Reality: Sustains ~3k-5k TPS with sub-second finality, a 50-100x throughput advantage over standard EVM L1s.

Sui's Move-based VM abandons the global account-based model for independent, owned objects.

• No Global State Contention: Most transactions (e.g., peer-to-peer payments) bypass consensus entirely via simple signature verification.
• Sub-Second Finality: For consensus-required transactions, its Narwhal-Bullshark DAG achieves finality in ~480ms.
• Scaling Linearly: Throughput scales with the number of validators, not bottlenecked by a single block proposer.

Fuel VM is a clean-slate design optimized for modular blockchains, treating execution as a standalone service.

• UTXO Model + Parallelism: Predictable state access enables parallel execution of ~10k+ TPS on a single core.
• Minimal Overhead: No legacy EVM opcodes or precompiles; every instruction is optimized for cost and performance.
• Developer Focus: Native asset support and a custom Sway language eliminate common smart contract vulnerabilities found in Solidity.

Ethereum's success cemented a virtual machine designed for a single-threaded world, creating systemic bottlenecks.

• Sequential Bottleneck: EVM processes transactions one-by-one, capping theoretical throughput.
• Global State Contention: Every transaction contends for a single state root, causing network-wide congestion.
• Gas Model Limitations: Complex operations (storage, calls) are poorly priced, leading to unpredictable and volatile fees.

Aptos leverages the Move language and a Block-STM parallel execution engine to maximize hardware utilization.

• Speculative Execution: Transactions are processed in parallel and re-executed only if conflicts are detected.
• Formal Verification: Move's resource-oriented model prevents reentrancy and overflow bugs by construction.
• Performance Under Load: Maintains ~10k+ TPS with ~1s finality even as validator count increases, avoiding the Solana validator drop-off problem.

Clean-slate designs optimize for first principles: parallel hardware use, predictable state access, and formal security.

• Architecture Dictates Ceiling: Parallel execution and optimized state models break the scalability trilemma for L1s.
• Security by Design: Languages like Move and Sway eliminate whole classes of financial smart contract bugs.
• The Future is Multi-VM: The winning stack will use specialized VMs (Solana, Fuel, Move) for execution, connected by universal settlement layers like Celestia or EigenLayer.

The EVM's sequential execution is the ultimate bottleneck. A clean-slate design bakes in parallel processing from day one, enabling order-of-magnitude throughput gains without complex L2 sharding.

• Enables Aptos/Sui-style optimistic parallelization for DeFi and gaming.
• Eliminates state contention, unlocking 10,000+ TPS for non-conflicting transactions.
• Future-proofs for hardware advancements (e.g., multi-core validator nodes).

EVM chains force a single gas token, creating systemic risk and UX friction. A native VM can abstract gas entirely or allow payment in any asset.

• Enables sponsored transactions and account abstraction as a first-class feature.
• Removes a major barrier to mass adoption (users shouldn't need ETH to use a chain).
• Reduces MEV extraction vectors related to gas auctions and priority fees.

Retrofitting security onto the EVM is a losing battle. A clean-slate VM can be designed with a formally verifiable instruction set and state model from inception.

• Drastically reduces smart contract vulnerabilities, targeting >90% reduction in exploits.
• Attracts institutional capital by providing mathematically provable security guarantees.
• Lowers insurance and auditing costs for protocols, improving unit economics.

EVM's global state tree is inefficient for modern applications. A new VM can implement purpose-built state models like Move's resource-oriented model or Fuel's UTXO-style architecture.

• Enables light-client verifiability from day one, enhancing decentralization.
• Optimizes for specific verticals (e.g., gaming assets, DeFi positions) with native atomic composability.
• Reduces node hardware requirements, lowering the barrier to running a validator.

Solidity and the EVM toolchain are legacy tech. A modern VM with a type-safe language (e.g., Move, Sway) and integrated tooling attracts top-tier developers.

• Reduces developer onboarding time from months to weeks.
• Creates a high-quality app ecosystem with fewer bugs and better patterns.
• Builds a defensible moat through superior productivity and security, as seen with Solana's Rust and CosmWasm.

Building a VM as a neutral settlement layer for intent-based architectures (UniswapX, CowSwap) and cross-chain messaging (LayerZero, Axelar) is a strategic advantage.

• Positions the chain as the canonical resolver for cross-domain transactions, capturing fees.
• Enables native atomic cross-chain composability without wrapping or bridging assets.
• Avoids the fragmentation and security risks of the current multi-chain EVM landscape.