PolkaVM: A fast and secure RISC-V based virtual machine
summary
PolkaVM is a RISC‑V–inspired blockchain VM that compiles off‑chain into a custom binary and guarantees linear‑time native recompilation, claiming one‑shot execution near native speeds and gas metering that adds about 10% overhead. Benchmarks show compilation to native is ~400x faster than Wasmtime and ~40x faster than Wasmi/Solana VMs; execution beats Wasmi and rivals Wasmtime. Features: Solidity via Revive, continuations for multi‑block execution, CoreVM to run native apps; downside: blobs ~4x EVM size and partial Solidity compatibility.
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chapters (19)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:10What makes a good blockchain virtual machine
- 2:36EVM strengths and limits
- 4:42WebAssembly as VM
- 8:13Why Polkadot explored RISC-V for virtual machines
- 9:20RISC-V benefits for VMs
- 10:23PolkaVM design
- 12:10PolkaVM benchmarks
- 13:53Faster compilation in PolkaVM
- 14:57PolkaVM features
- 15:18Solidity via Revive
- 15:58Continuations and multi-block
- 16:39CoreVM on-chain apps
- 17:42Formal spec and multi-language
- 18:23PolkaVM limits
- 19:05Should Ethereum switch
- 20:30High-performance smart contracts
- 21:56Decentralized world computers
- 23:41Q&A
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