The Road to Testnet
Smart Contract and Xelis Virtual Machine (XVM) Development Update
XELIS continues to progress forward in its Layer 1 blockDAG platform, expertly designed to support secure and scalable encrypted smart contracts and decentralized applications. By harnessing the power of its native utility coin, XELIS efficiently manages transaction fees and contract execution, providing a seamless and secure experience for decentralized operations.
Key Features and Virtual Machine Advancements
The core of the XELIS ecosystem is the XELIS Virtual Machine (XVM), designed to execute smart contracts through a stack-based architecture. XVM offers support for various data types, including integers, strings, booleans, arrays, and structs, giving developers versatility in designing smart contracts.
XVM allows developers to write smart contracts using either low-level assembly or a higher-level syntax called Silex, a Rust-inspired language. This provides flexibility, catering to both low-level system developers and those who prefer more abstraction.
While this approach bears similarities to Ethereum’s EVM, which also offers mnemonic assembly and high-level languages like Solidity, XVM differentiates itself through its encryption-focused architecture and enhanced privacy measures for smart contract interactions.
Progress and Performance Updates
Recent development in the XELIS ecosystem has been centered on improving XVM’s performance and functionality. Key enhancements have been made to stack operations, including the introduction of mem::take, a Rust function that allows developers to efficiently retrieve and remove a value from a mutable reference by replacing it with a default value. This avoids the need to clone or copy data, leading to faster pop_stack execution and significantly boosting performance.
The development team is also evaluating the potential advantages of optimizing push_stack operations, although the improvement over standard vector operations is still under review.
While the Shunting Yard Algorithm has not yet been implemented, significant improvements have been made to its design. The updated algorithm, which handles operator precedence in mathematical expressions, is expected to improve non-recursive parsing, enhancing memory management and preventing stack overflows when executing complex smart contracts. Its integration will mark a major step forward in the VM’s functionality.
Additionally, the lead developer is focused on implementing all missing opcodes, optimizing the virtual machine, and cleaning up the existing codebase. There’s also consideration for reworking the entire system to use a class-based hierarchy instead of structs. This rework could enhance the modularity of the system, making it easier to develop more complex smart contracts and decentralized applications.
Optimizations such as eliminating unnecessary value cloning, improving instruction dispatch times through lookup tables, and better memory management in nested loops have already led to significant performance gains. For example, the prime number benchmark time has been reduced from 2.7 seconds to 750 milliseconds, highlighting the efficiency improvements achieved so far.
Cryptographic Innovations and Security for Smart Contracts
In the XELIS Virtual Machine, security and encryption are central components. XVM employs Twisted ElGamal encryption, utilizing its homomorphic properties to ensure that balances and transaction amounts remain encrypted during smart contract execution. This allows for mathematical operations — such as adding or subtracting balances — to occur while keeping sensitive data private.
XVM also incorporates Bulletproofs, a type of zero-knowledge proof, which enables encrypted contract data (such as transaction amounts) to be verified without revealing the underlying information. These cryptographic innovations ensure that smart contracts maintain privacy while still being verifiable, providing a high level of security for decentralized applications built on XELIS.
Smart Contract Innovation and Dynamic Token Management
XELIS is advancing its smart contract architecture with plans to move from a struct-based system to a class-based hierarchy. This shift will allow for real inheritance, making contract design more modular and facilitating cross-contract interactions. This change will simplify the development of more complex decentralized applications, such as decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and NFT platforms.
In addition, XELIS is working on implementing dynamic token management within smart contracts. This will enable contracts to generate and manage multiple tokens or NFTs within a single contract, giving developers greater flexibility and control over digital assets in decentralized financial applications.
Collaboration and Community Involvement
The XELIS project greatly benefits from its active developer community. Contributions through GitHub and community discussions have played a key role in optimizing the XVM and shaping its future. The collaboration between the development team and the community ensures that XVM remains robust, secure, and capable of supporting a wide variety of decentralized applications.
Conclusion: Innovation in Encrypted Smart Contracts
As XELIS advances towards integrating smart contracts into its testnet, the platform is on the verge of a groundbreaking impact on the blockchain ecosystem. With its emphasis on encryption, security, and high-performance capabilities, the XELIS Virtual Machine (XVM) offers developers a robust and adaptable framework for crafting secure, scalable, and encrypted decentralized applications.
Continuous enhancements to its architecture, including advancements in stack handling, memory management, and cryptographic security, position XELIS at the cutting edge of blockchain innovation.
As smart contracts come to life on XELIS, the ecosystem will unlock unprecedented opportunities for developers and users to create and engage with secure, private, and decentralized applications that set a new standard for the industry.
