Podcast Summary
Exploring Fuel Network's Long-Term Focus and Innovative Design: Fuel Network stands out as a layer 2 solution on Ethereum with a long-term focus, faster transaction throughput, efficient design, a new execution layer, and a modular approach with a supportive toolchain.
Fuel Network, a layer 2 solution on Ethereum, stands out due to its unique design and philosophy, as discussed with Jon Adler in this episode of Alpha Leak. Fuel Network's difference lies in its focus on long-term innovation, as opposed to other layer 2s that may prioritize short-term gains. The Fuel Virtual Machine (VM) is a new and improved execution layer, offering faster transaction throughput and more efficient design for developers. Additionally, Fuel's modular approach, including its own domain-specific language, Sway, and supportive toolchain, Fork, allows developers to adopt improvements from the Rust ecosystem while maintaining the benefits of smart contract languages like Solidity. Overall, Fuel Network represents the logical conclusion of a layer 2, according to Jon Adler, and offers a powerful developer experience. The sponsorship of Bankless podcast by Fuel Network did not influence this episode, which aims to provide a deep dive into the details that make Fuel Network tick.
The Role of a Co-Founder in Ethereum Scaling Research: From Optimistic Roll Ups to Fuel: A co-founder of Fuel Labs and Celestia Labs played a crucial role in Ethereum scaling research, starting at ConsenSys where he worked on state channels, plasma, and optimistic roll ups. He was the first to publish the exact construction of optimistic roll ups, but his new project, Fuel, diverges with faster throughput and cost-proportionality.
The speaker, a co-founder of Fuel Labs and Celestia Labs, played a significant role in the development of optimistic roll ups in Ethereum scaling research. He started as a scalability researcher at ConsenSys, where he worked on state channels, plasma, and optimistic roll ups. He was the first to publicly publish the exact construction of optimistic roll ups, which uses fraud proofs for validity, permissionless block production, and data availability on the main chain. However, the philosophy of Fuel, a modular execution layer built by the speaker's team, diverges from the optimistic roll ups that are widely known. Fuel is the fastest modular execution layer due to its high transaction throughput and cost-proportionality. It's more than just a roll up because it supports more functionalities. The fastest part of Fuel is significant because it supports transaction throughputs proportional to the cost to run a full node, surpassing other modular execution layers.
Roll Ups vs Modular Execution Layers: Differences and Trade-offs: Roll Ups are a type of blockchain that posts its data to another blockchain, requiring fraud or validity proofs and a mechanism for permissionless transaction insertion. Modular Execution Layers have separate data and settlement layers, acting as a bridge for funds but not a necessary condition for a Roll Up.
A roll up is a type of blockchain that posts its data to another blockchain, making it a roll up and not an independent blockchain. It requires fraud or validity proofs and a mechanism for permissionless transaction insertion to function effectively. A modular execution layer, on the other hand, is a concept where the data and settlement layers are separate blockchains. The settlement layer acts as a two-way bridge for funds, but it's not a necessary condition for a roll up. However, some roll ups prioritize optimization and may forego additional features, such as state or transaction routes, which can limit their functionality for clients.
Modular Execution Layer for Trust Minimization and Light Client Verification: A modular execution layer enables trust minimization through permissionless and trustless bridges, while also allowing users to run a light client and verify the roll up's validity.
For a roll up, the lack of an off-chain light client can lead to trust issues and uncertainty about the validity of transactions. This is similar to the critique of Ethereum's centralization due to large node sizes, which limits the number of people who can verify transactions. A modular execution layer, on the other hand, is like a "thunderbolt cable" that includes all necessary features, including the ability to run an off-chain light client. This allows for trust minimization and more widespread verification of transactions. In essence, a modular execution layer provides the benefits of a roll up, such as trust minimization and permissionless and trustless bridges, while also enabling users to run a light client and verify the roll up's validity.
Fuel: A Modular Execution Layer for Multiple Layer 1s: Fuel is a flexible and trust-minimized infrastructure that can settle data on multiple layer 1 networks, abstracting away the importance of any specific data layer, and enabling data compression through its light client Merkle tree aspect.
Fuel, a modular execution layer, aims to provide both security and flexibility by not being tightly coupled to a specific layer 1. Unlike traditional roll-ups, Fuel can settle data on multiple layer 1 networks, abstracting away the importance of any specific data layer. This design choice enables Fuel to avoid inheriting unwanted code and ensures clean, free-from-legacy code. Additionally, Fuel's light client Merkle tree aspect enables data compression, but it's not the only property that sets it apart. It's the overall flexibility and independence from a specific layer 1 that makes Fuel a more modular and trust-minimized infrastructure.
Fuel's Separate Virtual Machine (FuelVM) for Improved Performance and Flexibility: FuelVM, a new Ethereum scaling solution, simplifies contract semantics and introduces efficient new instructions like memory copy and transient stores to improve performance and support custom cryptography.
Fuel, a new Ethereum scaling solution, separates its Virtual Machine (VM) significantly from Ethereum's Virtual Machine (EVM) to improve performance and flexibility. This design choice, called FuelVM, simplifies learning and execution of contract semantics, as it's based on the EVM but enhanced. The FuelVM introduces new instructions, such as memory copy and transient stores, which can make operations like custom cryptography more efficient. These improvements aim to address the limitations of the Ethereum network, such as the complex EIP process and the lack of support for certain cryptographic primitives. Overall, FuelVM's architecture changes contribute to better performance and flexibility, catering to developers and users who require custom cryptography or native support for various cryptographic primitives.
Fuel Network for Improved Transaction Efficiency: Fuel Network utilizes custom cryptography, shared memory architecture, and parallel execution to enhance transaction efficiency and flexibility, saving gas and reducing transaction times.
The Fuel network aims to improve transaction efficiency and flexibility by enabling custom cryptography and implementing a shared memory architecture. This allows for significant gas savings and the ability to execute transactions in parallel. For instance, the implementation of t store and t load in Ethereum allows for persisting memory across calls, but the Fuel VM already has this feature. Additionally, the Fuel protocol orchestrates the execution of multiple instances of the VM in parallel, making transactions faster. The current state of the Fuel network includes the implementation of several EIPs, such as transient storage, and the network continues to develop with a focus on improving performance and flexibility.
Unlocking underutilized resources in single-core VMs through parallel transaction execution: Parallel transaction execution enables efficient use of multiple threads in modern CPUs, reducing resource waste and improving memory usage in blockchain transactions.
Modern CPUs have not seen significant single-core speed increases in the past two decades, but processors now have a large number of threads that are often underutilized in single-core Virtual Machines (VMs). Parallel transaction execution is a solution that unlocks the unused resources by allowing multiple transactions to be processed simultaneously. This approach, as discussed with the Fuel Network example, can lead to more efficient memory usage and less resource waste. Another important aspect is the need for fast and efficient layer 2 bridges in the growing Ethereum ecosystem. Across is one such bridge that offers instant asset transfers between Ethereum and other layer 2 networks, with low fees and high security. The Brave Wallet is another tool that simplifies managing crypto assets across multiple chains, including Ethereum and layer 2s, by providing a secure, multi-chain wallet built directly into the Brave privacy browser. In essence, the focus is on optimizing the use of resources, reducing waste, and improving efficiency in blockchain transactions and wallet management. This is crucial for the scalability and adoption of decentralized technologies like Ethereum and its layer 2 solutions.
Exploring the Future of Web 3 with Brave's Browser and Arbitrum's Scalability Solution: Brave's browser offers a user-friendly decentralized web experience with built-in token swaps, NFT gallery view, and hardware wallet support. Arbitrum, powered by Fuel technology, delivers faster and cheaper transactions, currently offering 7x Ethereum's scale and aiming for a 100x improvement.
Brave's web 3 ready browser offers a user-friendly experience to navigate the decentralized web with features like built-in token swaps, NFT gallery view, and hardware wallet support. Arbitrum, a secure Ethereum scalability solution, powers faster and cheaper transactions for both builders and users, with hundreds of projects already deployed. Fuel, a technology powering Arbitrum, focuses on reducing waste in transactions, aiming for significant speed improvements compared to optimistic roll-ups. Arbitrum currently offers 7x the scale of Ethereum, and Fuel as a technology aims for a 100x improvement on the same computer.
Development of Fuel: From Optimistic Rollups to a New Language: Fuel, started in 2019, initially focused on optimistic rollups for Ethereum payments but later shifted to creating a system for Ethereum scalability through general purpose smart contract execution. They considered using Rust and an IVG but ultimately developed their own language, Sway, to better suit their needs.
Fuel, a project started in 2019 by three individuals, began with the development of the first optimistic rollup for Ethereum payments in late 2020. While this was a significant achievement, the ultimate goal was to create a system enabling Ethereum to scale through general purpose smart contract execution. Early on, the team considered using Rust for their VM architecture and an interactive verification game (IVG) for maintenance. However, they ultimately decided against this approach due to the challenges of maintaining two instances of the VM interpreter. Instead, they went on to develop their own language, Sway, which has since grown significantly from its inception. The team had initially considered using Move and the MoveVM, but found them less suitable due to their focus on a specific way of reasoning about assets and the immaturity of the Move language at the time.
Lesson Learned: Building from Scratch to Avoid Upstream Dependency Challenges: Building from scratch allows a team to avoid the maintenance challenges and expenses of relying on outdated or poorly-maintained upstream dependencies. This was the decision made by the Sway team, who grew from a small group to almost 70 contributors, and successfully launched their project after focusing on building a high-quality codebase.
Relying on upstream dependencies, especially those that are not well-maintained, can lead to significant challenges and expenses when it comes to maintaining your codebase. This was a lesson learned by the team behind Sway, a crypto project that chose to build their compiler from scratch instead of using Move, an upstream dependency. While using Move could make the building process faster, the team recognized that the potential issues with maintaining an outdated or poorly-maintained dependency far outweighed the benefits. The team's history with Move was a "history lesson" in the challenges of relying on upstream dependencies. When Move wasn't maintained, the team was left with the choice of either forking it and maintaining it themselves or completely changing their conventions to work with the existing codebase. Both options were costly and time-consuming, and the team ultimately decided to build Sway from scratch to avoid these issues. Since then, Sway has grown from a small team of founders to almost 70 contributors, including mostly engineers. They launched their first version in late 2020 and have been building in public since early 2021. The team has made a conscious effort to hire non-engineers as well, recognizing the need for a diverse team to build a successful project. By building from scratch, Sway has been able to avoid the maintenance challenges that come with upstream dependencies and focus on building a high-quality, well-maintained codebase.
Fuel Labs' Transparent and Community-Driven Approach: Fuel Labs prioritizes transparency and community involvement, making all code open source and building in public, leading to a growing ecosystem of developers and projects on their network
Fuel Labs prioritizes transparency and community involvement in their blockchain development. They make all their code open source and build in public, allowing for a growing ecosystem of engaged developers. This approach has led to a burgeoning community of developers building projects on Fuel's network, including an AMM, NFT marketplace, and more. Although there isn't readily available data on users or daily transaction volume, the team is confident in the growth of their ecosystem. Fuel's development process, which includes iterating code to make it work on their network, sets them apart from other projects and adds to their unique ethos. While their data may not be easily accessible on analytics platforms like Dune, their testnets are public, and all activity is on-chain.
Ethereum Beta 2: Beyond EVM Upgrades: Ethereum Beta 2 introduces native GraphQL interface, eliminates need for third-party indexing services, and offers a first-party indexer service, streamlining development and indexing processes. Long-term, there's a predicted convergence around EVM but a desire for more flexibility, with Fuel leading in this direction.
Ethereum's beta 2 network introduces significant improvements, moving beyond just upgrading the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). These enhancements include a native GraphQL interface, eliminating the need for third-party services for indexing, and a first-party indexer service. These changes contribute to a unified toolchain, simplifying development and indexing processes. The speaker also shares their perspective on the Ethereum layer 2 landscape, predicting convergence around the EVM in the short term but anticipating a long-term desire for more flexibility and improvements. Fuel, specifically, is seen as leading in this direction with its enforced parallelism approach.
Fuel's advanced EIPs make it an attractive choice for developers: Fuel's readiness and superior offerings could make it the preferred solution for Ethereum's converging ecosystem, avoiding lengthy waits and potential disputes
Fuel, a Ethereum Layer 1 alternative, has been leading the way in implementing advanced Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) for years, making it an attractive choice for developers seeking more functionality. As the Ethereum ecosystem converges towards a more feature-rich EVM, there are three possible scenarios: accepting limitations, fragmenting the EVM, or using Fuel as the preferred solution due to its readiness and superior offerings. The latter scenario would benefit both Fuel and the Ethereum ecosystem by avoiding lengthy waits and potential governance disputes among rollups with competing interests. However, if rollups continue to push for Ethereum governance changes that benefit them, it could lead to a fragmented EVM and a suboptimal user experience.
Competition over Ethereum governance and potential solutions like Fuel: Explore Fuel to make informed decisions about Ethereum's future scalability solutions, as competition could lead to fragmentation and complications for infrastructure.
The Ethereum ecosystem is currently facing a significant challenge as teams compete over governance and potential solutions like Fuel. The outcome of this competition could lead to fragmentation and the creation of multiple versions of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which could bring about complications for tools, compilers, and other infrastructure. This scenario could potentially result in a less ideal future for Ethereum, with fewer scalability improvements and less adherence to Ethereum's core values of security, decentralization, and open building. To help ensure a more positive outcome, developers and interested parties are encouraged to explore Fuel for themselves by checking out the project's website, GitHub, and social media channels. The code is the ultimate authority, and by experiencing it firsthand, individuals can make informed decisions about the future of Ethereum and its scalability solutions.
