With Initia, full-stack applications are not only within reach but also highly practical.

Author: Initia

Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow

Original image from @initia, compiled by Deep Tide TechFlow

Imagine this: after a day of "roller coaster" operations on the blockchain, you are ready to wrap up your busy day. Going long on ETH earned you $6,900, investing in a token of an AI entity that claims to "cure cancer," and then easily achieving a 42x return. However, you feel an overwhelming sense of oppression inside. Why? Because of the EVM.

Every time you use the EVM, you can't help but ask yourself: how did we get here? Every transaction feels like cautiously navigating a minefield. You can't help but wonder, why, by 2025, have we not been able to escape the clumsy and dangerous "approve-deposit" operation model?

Worse still, you are always on edge, fearing that the infinite approval operations on your favorite decentralized exchange (DEX) will backfire on you, or that you might lose your life savings due to a honeypot scam. If these scenarios feel familiar, it means you are still living in the past.

@dcfgod:

"It turns out that the design flaw of approving before exchanging has caused losses of up to $100 billion."

However, to be fair, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is not without its merits. Those dramatic complaints above are just to grab your attention, but the reality is much more complex.

In fact, the EVM has always been the infrastructure for programmable blockchains. Historically, many of the most useful and innovative decentralized applications (dApps) have been written in Solidity for the EVM, such as Uniswap, Aave, GMX, and CryptoKitties. However, it is now time for the EVM's dominance to gradually give way to a new generation of promising contenders.

Next-generation virtual machines like MoveVM, CosmWasm, SVM, FuelVM, and Arbitrum Stylus are emerging, each with its unique advantages and disadvantages. Developers are also beginning to choose the most suitable virtual machine based on actual needs.

This is not just developers chasing trends, but a choice made after years of observation and careful consideration. They have studied the pros and cons of the EVM and learned from experience. These new-generation virtual machines start from a higher baseline, bringing better solutions.

What are the advantages of the EVM?

Original image from @initia, compiled by Deep Tide TechFlow

• Network effects, ecosystem, and mature development infrastructure. The EVM has a significant first-mover advantage, making it the preferred choice for most developers. It boasts a large user base, a rich application ecosystem, high liquidity, and development tools that far exceed those of other virtual machines.

• Institutional integration. As blockchain scales, centralized exchanges (CEX) and custodial service providers have become necessities. These third-party institutions often act slowly, but they have integrated countless EVM-based blockchains, making their support for the EVM more mature.

• Real-world testing. After countless hacks, Solidity and the EVM have become increasingly robust and have withstood real-world scrutiny. While theoretical security is important, nothing speaks louder than years of continuous vulnerability fixes.

• Economic drive. The EVM supports nearly $90 billion in DeFi assets, and this trend continues. More and more emerging blockchains (like Monad, Hyperliquid, MegaETH, and Berachain) are also choosing the EVM, and this immense economic force drives the EVM to continuously improve to meet liquidity demands.

Why is the EVM not perfect?

• Insufficient security. Although the EVM has undergone countless real-world tests, the emergence of altVMs indicates that there is still room for improvement. These new virtual machines start from a higher security baseline, able to directly avoid many application and protocol-level vulnerabilities. Even experienced Solidity developers can make mistakes in complex code, and the potential attack paths that auditors need to check can be quite daunting.

• Performance is not ideal. The traditional EVM performs poorly in high-throughput scenarios, with low efficiency. Projects like @monadxyz and @megaethlabs are trying to address this issue, but their approaches have their pros and cons. Monad chooses to completely rewrite the tech stack, which improves performance but sacrifices proven reliability; while MegaETH compromises on decentralization.

Original image from @initia, compiled by Deep Tide TechFlow

• Gas optimization is challenging. For developers, it is a significant problem when they need to spend more time optimizing gas efficiency rather than focusing on the design of the protocol itself. Additionally, to achieve significant optimization, developers often need to write complex assembly code, which can be a nightmare for many. Sometimes, even just adjusting the order of function definitions in a smart contract can lead to gas consumption optimization, which is almost an art.

Despite these flaws, the EVM continues to operate stably and will maintain its dominance in the coming years. But we can look at it from another angle: Bitcoin is the dominant crypto asset, but that does not prevent thousands of other crypto assets from coexisting with it.

Moreover, the developer ecosystem of the EVM is also continuously striving to improve user experience through account abstraction, batch transactions, and even new Solidity compilers. From the underlying architecture to every aspect of development tools, the EVM is undergoing improvements.

However, if our optimistic predictions for the future hold true, the number of developers in the crypto space will grow at least 1,000 times, and we cannot expect the EVM to meet everyone's needs. Think about Web2; no programming language can perfectly fit all use cases, nor can any language satisfy all developers, and we cannot have such expectations for the EVM.

It is time to expand the landscape of virtual machines—altVMs EVM

Original image from @initia, compiled by Deep Tide TechFlow

We know that changing entrenched beliefs is not easy. When your most trusted crypto Twitter researcher tells you that the EVM is good enough and questions the significance of altVMs, you may be inclined to believe their viewpoint. But let's look at it from another angle, directly addressing these concerns and exploring the potential of altVMs.

Controversies about AltVM

• Why do we need altVMs? Isn't EVM good enough? If we are always satisfied with the status quo, thinking "good enough is enough," we will never enjoy better technology and experiences. AltVMs represent a bold attempt and a direction for technological evolution, pushing the development of crypto applications into a new phase. Moreover, competition often fosters more powerful solutions.

• Some believe that AltVMs are merely a product of venture capital chasing trends. This is not the case, and there is ample evidence to refute this viewpoint. CosmWasm has been the preferred virtual machine for multiple Cosmos-based blockchains for years, Solana's SVM can support astonishing transaction scales and liquidity, and even Sui and Aptos, relying on MoveVM, have already supported over $2.7 billion in total locked value (TVL). These are real indicators of user growth and product-market fit (PMF), not hollow hype.

• Attracting users is really difficult. They need to download new wallets, learn how to use new block explorers, and gradually form new mindsets. However—

    1. First, users will always chase opportunities. Blockchains using altVMs often harbor untapped potential, which is key to initiating user growth. As long as you can make users feel it’s worth it, they will be willing to overcome the learning curve.

    2. Second, Initia provides solutions. With BYOW (Bring Your Own Wallet), regardless of which Interwoven Rollup you choose, and regardless of the virtual machine used by the Rollup, you can freely select your familiar wallet, such as Rabby, Phantom, or Keplr.

    3. Finally, chain abstraction is gradually becoming a reality. Technical issues like gas sponsorship and cross-chain interoperability have made breakthroughs in 2024. By 2025, regardless of which chain or virtual machine users are using, the barriers to entering new applications will be minimized.

• Developer tools are still lacking. We acknowledge this, but we also need to recognize that these tools are still in their infancy and are rapidly iterating. Once these tools achieve breakthrough developments, the developer experience will significantly improve.

Why can AltVMs thrive in the long term?

Now that we have addressed those headache-inducing issues, it’s time to refocus on the advantages of AltVMs, which have many highlights worth discussing. AltVMs bring a new level of creativity and opportunity to blockchain applications. They introduce new development paradigms, innovative concepts, and provide higher security assurances. Next, let’s delve into what makes AltVMs unique:

A New Mindset

Observant individuals may have noticed that in the past cycle, most innovations in blockchain applications have concentrated off-chain—whether in user interfaces, incentive mechanisms, or bridges bringing external revenue into the crypto space. On-chain innovations have gradually plateaued. We hope to see more developers like fiveoutofnine who dare to experiment on-chain and push the boundaries of technology.

However, the design of the EVM has, to some extent, limited developers' mindsets, making it difficult for them to break free from established frameworks and unleash their creativity. The emergence of AltVMs breaks these constraints, providing developers with more choices and flexibility. They enable developers to think about building on-chain applications in entirely new ways.

Recently, this shift has been particularly evident in the applications of Arbitrum Stylus and Sui Move.

Arbitrum's Stylus is a WebAssembly (WASM)-based execution environment that allows developers to build smart contracts using Rust, C++, or any language that can compile to WASM. This flexibility has already shown powerful effects in practice.

For example, Renegade is the first on-chain dark pool decentralized exchange (DEX) that achieves no slippage, zero MEV (minimum extractable value), and privacy trading. After evaluating various technical solutions, Renegade ultimately chose Stylus because the costs of other solutions were too high for users. You can read more about this case study.

Now let’s look at Sui's MoveVM. It introduces the concept of Programmable Transaction Blocks (PTBs), allowing developers to integrate interactions of multiple modules into a single transaction, which is sent on-chain after being completed off-chain. This means you don’t need to rely on account abstraction to achieve batch transactions, nor do you have to wait for a controversial EIP to be added to the EVM. By developing on Sui, you can immediately enjoy the advantages of these user experiences. For more information, click here.

High Security Standards

Today, most AltVMs place security at the core of their design principles. They learn from the shortcomings of the EVM and fundamentally avoid these flaws from the outset. Of course, this does not mean they are absolutely secure; potential vulnerabilities or attack vectors may still be discovered in the future, but in terms of current security performance, they indeed outperform the EVM.

Additionally, many AltVMs are built on Rust. Rust is a programming language known for its high security, widely used in developing mission-critical software. It can be said that these AltVMs prioritize security from their design foundations.

Still not convinced? Take a look at MoveVM—the virtual machine used by Initia L1.

First, Move is the only language in the cryptocurrency space designed from scratch by a team with deep programming language development experience.

The Move language has built-in mandatory features that encourage developers to think more deeply about program design while also expressing program states in a more realistic manner. For example:

• Assets are viewed as "resources" "owned" by addresses, which sharply contrasts with the EVM's method of mapping balances, better reflecting the true ownership of assets.

• Move borrows Rust's strict ownership semantics, requiring developers to explicitly define which parts of the data can be modified and the specific scope and location of modifications during state management. This strict requirement effectively reduces potential vulnerabilities in program design.

Even so, what if developers still accidentally make mistakes? Move provides formal verification capabilities to mitigate risks. With a built-in formal verifier, developers can mathematically define the expected behavior of programs, and the verifier checks whether the code meets expectations. This significantly reduces the likelihood of logical errors.

Born for Performance

The design goal of AltVMs is to pursue extreme performance. It is certain that performance was not prioritized in the initial design of the EVM and Solidity. Although the EVM has made significant progress through years of iteration, it still cannot compare with the newly designed AltVMs.

Traditional EVMs perform poorly in parallel processing, while parallelization is the most effective means of enhancing blockchain performance. Although it is possible to implement parallelization in the EVM, achieving excellent performance often requires a tremendous cost, such as needing a top-notch engineering team to completely restructure the system.

So, what is parallelization? Simply put, it means processing multiple transactions simultaneously rather than sequentially, significantly improving efficiency.

Original image from @initia, compiled by Deep Tide TechFlow

Modern virtual machines are designed with parallelization needs in mind, and they perform exceptionally well in such environments. In particular, the programming paradigms adopted by Move and Solana's virtual machines make parallelization more efficient and seamless.

In the SVM (Solana Virtual Machine), all data is grouped into different accounts. Developers can flexibly allocate data across multiple accounts, and the data is independent of the program's execution logic. In each transaction, developers need to explicitly specify which accounts will be read or written. This separation design allows the virtual machine to identify transactions that do not contend for the same resources, enabling efficient parallel processing.

After discussing the concerns about AltVMs and systematically outlining their advantages, you should now understand why AltVMs hold tremendous positive value (EV+) for the crypto space and the development of future applications.

This is not a technical factional battle, nor is there a need to "pick sides" for a particular virtual machine. Each virtual machine has its strengths and limitations, and ultimately, developers should have the freedom to choose the tools that best suit their needs. Innovation and experimentation are beneficial for the development of the entire industry!

When building applications, these choices are key, which is why Initia currently supports MEWing—encompassing MoveVM, EVM, and CosmWasm.

In fact, our exploration of the AltVM space is just beginning. From zkVMs (zero-knowledge proof-based virtual machines) to hybrid virtual machine environments, to attempts like FuelVM aimed at solving state bloat issues, the future of applications is filled with infinite possibilities. Imagine how future applications will leverage these tools to create entirely new experiences and use cases, all at lower costs—this is undoubtedly exciting.

The development of AltVMs has just entered the starting phase of the S-curve.

Original image from @initia, compiled by Deep Tide TechFlow

Beyond AltVMs: The Era of Full-Stack Applications

Let’s take a step back and think: what is the ultimate goal of these tools and discussions? The real objective is to build products and experiences that provide immense value to users—whether through extreme performance, robust security, or a seamless user experience.

Ultimately, virtual machines are just one tool in the developer's toolbox.

But are they the best tools to achieve the goal? They are certainly part of the puzzle, but not the whole picture. In a shared general chain environment, whether EVM or AltVMs, it is difficult to fully meet the needs.

As @ItsAlwaysZonny said:

“EVM or AltVM, a general chain is just a mediocre choice.

Have a clear goal and build a dedicated application chain.”

Applications built on a monolithic chain based on shared state always struggle to compete with those based on dedicated, customized infrastructure.

The real transformation lies in the rise of full-stack applications.

The core of full-stack applications is to choose the right virtual machine for your use case and combine it with a dedicated custom application chain. Full-stack applications allow developers to have complete control over the execution environment, eliminating compromises. It leads us into a brand new future—where developers are no longer limited to choosing a specific blockchain but can customize a dedicated blockchain based on application needs, from dedicated block space to customized transaction execution and ordering, all centered around the best user experience. Full-stack applications represent freedom and the next technological evolution.

Original image from @initia, compiled by Deep Tide TechFlow

At Initia, we firmly believe that full-stack applications are the key breakthrough driving the development of innovative products. To this end, we are committed to providing developers with the best framework for building full-stack applications: developers can choose the most suitable virtual machine according to their vision—whether it’s the high security of Move, the mature ecosystem of EVM, or the flexibility of CosmWasm. At the same time, with LayerZero and IBC, developers can easily achieve instant interoperability; with the Cosmos SDK, they can freely adjust the technology stack of the underlying chain. Moreover, all the necessary tools are integrated into the Interwoven Stack, including Oracle services, Celestia data availability (DA), blockchain explorers, native USDC support, fiat deposit channels, wallet components, cross-chain bridge UI, and more.

With Initia, full-stack applications are not only within reach but also highly practical.

Finally, let us give you a preview of the upcoming content related to full-stack applications and application chains. This article lays the groundwork for the next piece, which we believe will be even more engaging and encourage you to continue exploring the infinite possibilities in this field.

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