Bankless Co-founder: The Era of EVM Equivalence is Coming, Unlocking the Next Phase of Ethereum Growth

Author: David Hoffman, Co-founder of Bankless

Compiled by: Amber, ForesightNews

Original Title: “EVM Equivalence”

EVM equivalence helps the Ethereum Layer 2 Rollup ecosystem "evolve" into a highly adaptive and responsive layer, unlocking the next phase of Ethereum.

The DeFi Summer of 2020 hit the scalability limits of Ethereum. Since then, the network effects of EVM have diverged into many different directions. New L1s, and even many L2s, have broken the EVM standard to overcome performance bottlenecks.

However, the era of EVM equivalence has now arrived, and a new Cambrian explosion of innovation is about to come, which we only need EVM equivalence to unlock.

What is EVM Equivalence

EVM equivalence is fully consistent with the EVM specification. The design philosophy of EVM equivalence is to build an Optimistic Rollup based on Ethereum's "minimal dif."

EVM equivalence extends Ethereum's properties to its L2. It blurs the boundary between where Ethereum L1 stops and L2 Rollup begins. This is the distinction between "scaling on Ethereum" and "Ethereum itself scaling."

As a perfect clone of EVM, the Optimistic Rollup not only shares the security level of the Ethereum mainnet but also shares every aspect of its network effects. Other L2 design structures do not have the privilege of accessing all network effects of Ethereum.

The compatibility of EVM is rigid. It either optimizes generality by adhering to Ethereum standards (thus choosing the same standards as others) or builds something entirely different, optimizing exclusively for your use case (e.g., ZK-rollups).

To extend all of Ethereum's energy to L2, we need more than just EVM compatibility. What we need is EVM equivalence.

Compatibility vs. Equivalence

When the Optimism team introduced EVM equivalence last year, they described the technical differences between equivalence and compatibility.

Rollups are hailed as the saviors of scalability because we can run Uniswap on them. However, the earliest rollups were achieved by completely recreating Uniswap using custom code on a custom rollup. This is clearly not a good enough solution.

The network effects of EVM extend far beyond the scope of Solidity. A plethora of auxiliary tools empower Ethereum developers. Because these tools also run on the EVM standard, they alleviate the cumbersome need to rebuild entirely new proprietary code. With EVM equivalence, we can simply copy and paste to reconstruct an application that already exists on L1.

EVM as a City

"Open-source code is like a city. It is created from the bottom up, from the contributions of many developers who see problems and build solutions. Over time, this city becomes increasingly strong and efficient. Simply put, an EVM chain is like rebuilding Paris in Las Vegas, recreating an existing prosperous scene on another piece of land."

Open-source software is a public good, maintained and upgraded by their respective communities.

Developers using open-source software encounter various problems during use; some developers spend time fixing these issues and then lobby the community to accept their findings. If the community finds it valuable, their contributions are merged. A new standard is created, and the utility and robustness of the software improve accordingly.

Like an emerging city, builders produce what the surrounding community needs and values. Shared resources and utilities are produced, and because it is code, it never decays. As long as everyone works together, this is a one-way street of value growth. Each developer builds in their own direction and discovers their specific contributions to the collective. Over time, the collective contributions of thousands of developers will shape a highly robust public good.

Geth is a great example; Geth has built a powerful application by absorbing meaningful contributions from Ethereum developers.

EVM Peloton

Here we introduce a concept, the "peloton," which is a group of road cyclists. The riders in the group save energy by riding behind other riders. In a sufficiently experienced group, the resistance faced by the riders can be reduced to 5%-10%.

In other words, if you want to go faster in a short time, go solo. But if you want to go further, go together.

The larger the group, the higher the efficiency and speed. Air resistance is distributed among a larger group. As the size of the group increases, the efficiency of the group also improves. Being in the middle of the peloton is essentially effortless. The leader of the group needs to be frequently rotated because the leader bears all the resistance of the headwind; when those with more energy reserves take the lead, the entire team's speed can be maintained at a higher level.

The speed of development in the open-source community will inevitably be faster than that of individuals or centralized small teams. The reason our industry is developing so rapidly is that it is a collaborative flywheel. We grow on the success of one another, and when one of us breaks into the frontier, they bring us all along.

EVM equivalence is a bottom-up emerging public good resembling a city. On the other hand, EVM compatibility is a one-time copy. There are countless different ways to deviate from EVM, but only one way to follow it.

Copying the Application Layer

Creating an L2 ecosystem equivalent to EVM is crucial for preserving the network effects of composability and interoperability.

EVM equivalent Rollups allow for instant copy + paste of cross-chain codebases. Development and innovation on a single EVM equivalent rollup can seamlessly transfer to any other EVM equivalent ORU and can also transfer to Ethereum itself. Since everything is developed on the EVM standard, the network effects of L1 are extended to L2, and innovations on L2 will resonate throughout the ecosystem.

If you are an open-source developer, you want your code to be widely used, and you naturally want to use EVM equivalent ORUs because your code can immediately be compatible with all other EVM equivalent ORUs. If you write code once but it works seamlessly on 1000 compatible chains, then the value you just created is much greater.

EVM equivalence elevates the EVM network effects to a whole new level.

Non-EVM equivalent ORUs will not benefit from these shared network effects because non-EVM equivalent ORUs do not meet the design philosophy of "minimal dif." The tidal wave of Ethereum's network effects becomes more complex with each new EVM equivalent ORU added. If you are not surfing this wave, you will have to struggle to swim to catch up.

Copying the Protocol Layer

These EVM network effects apply not only to the application layer of Ethereum but also to the protocol layer itself.

Because EVM equivalent ORUs differ little from Ethereum, they provide a new testing platform for new EIPs in a real production environment.

Currently, EIPs are tested on Ethereum testnets. EIPs undergo multiple tests on testnets to ensure that when they are eventually integrated into Ethereum L1, there are no issues. This is always risky because testnets do not have the "minimal dif" with Ethereum. Implementing an EIP in Goerli or Koven is different from implementing an EIP in Ethereum, as the scale and significance of economic activities above Ethereum are things that testnets cannot replicate. There are always some "unknowns" when implementing an EIP in Ethereum.

EVM equivalence provides a new solution.

When an EIP is successfully implemented on an EVM equivalent ORU, it provides a strong assurance to the base chain that the same EIP can be successfully integrated without errors. EVM equivalent ORUs provide a testing ground for EIPs with real economic activity and real capital. EIPs can be tested at the ORU layer without the risk of damaging other parts of the entire system.

When L2s universally adopt the same EIP, it signals to Ethereum L1 that it is needed by the community and can be safely integrated into L1.

EVM equivalent ORUs enable Ethereum to sense the urgency of participants on its L2, allowing each L2 to become an antenna that adapts to the desires of its users. Because each ORU is its own sovereign economy, it will independently and asynchronously implement various EIPs based on the needs and wishes of its users, separate from other parts of the ecosystem.

Over time, the best EIPs will dominate the landscape of L2 ORUs as more independent ORUs recognize the value of the same EIP. When an EIP dominates the entire ORU landscape, it will signal to Ethereum L1 that it is a good EIP and that it is safe to implement at the L1 protocol layer.

There will be many forks of Optimism on Ethereum. When they all adopt the same EIP, it will signal to the main L1 that the EIP is desirable and safe.

A Simple Summary of the Significance of EVM Equivalence

EVM equivalence helps Ethereum break free from the constraints of L1, enabling Ethereum to extend into the secondary market, and the boundary between Ethereum L1 and EVM equivalent L2 will become very blurred. In other words, the definition of L1 or L2 will become less important because it is all "just" Ethereum.

Horror vacui (fear of vacuum)

"Nature abhors a vacuum — Aristotle"

Nature is adept at filling gaps. An organism becomes increasingly suited to its environment through evolution, and the space it fills becomes larger. Animals consume food and reproduce to the maximum extent allowed by the environment. All plants are manifestations of fractals because fractals are algorithms that maximize surface area. The increase in a plant's surface area enhances its ability to capture sunlight on its leaves and obtain nutrients from its roots.

The Last Mile Problem

The last mile refers to the final segment of a journey, including the movement of people and goods from transportation hubs to their final destinations. The last mile describes the difficult final part of transporting people and packages from hubs to their ultimate destinations. Some challenges of last-mile transportation include minimizing costs, ensuring transparency, improving efficiency, and enhancing infrastructure.

Nature is indeed good at solving the last mile problem. This is the natural result of "survival of the fittest"; the best organisms replicate and reproduce to fill the gaps they occupy.

Even within a single organism, fractals are the fundamental pattern for increasing the scale and efficiency of the organism. The lungs are responsible for capturing oxygen and distributing it to the blood; the circulatory system is responsible for distributing this oxygen and other nutrients to the farthest reaches of the organism. A fractal is a structure where each substructure has the same properties as the overall structure. Fractals can be thought of as endless patterns, and replicability and reproducibility are why fractals are fractals.

Only replicable and reproducible structures can effectively fill gaps in nature. Crypto is a vast blank space with much to build. But to fill all these gaps with new structures, we need systems that can replicate and reproduce.

EVM equivalence provides the foundation needed to generate these properties.

With the EVM equivalent Rollup ecosystem, Ethereum can replicate and reproduce at an extremely fast pace, zeroing in on the desires of its users and updating its code to map those desires.

Each L2 can develop in its unique direction, specializing in what it wants to focus on. Successful L2s, if they have many users and significant value, will signal to other L2s that they have discovered something valuable. We all know that the cryptocurrency industry is indeed "efficient"; once something is proven useful, it will be copied and replicated.

As long as L2 finds new sources of value, that source can be replicated and shared throughout the ecosystem and ultimately brought back to the center of the ecosystem.

EIPs as New Genes

Richard Dawkins' book The Selfish Gene discusses how each gene in an organism is the smallest unit of life, and its inherent self-interest in its preservation and replication provides the foundational pattern upon which all life depends.

Good genes survive, while bad genes die.

As organisms evolve and adapt, the genes that keep them healthy spread throughout the species over the long term through replication and reproduction. Beneficial random mutations in individual organisms help them survive and thrive better than others, resulting in that gene transitioning from existing in just one instance to existing in all possible instances because it is a good gene.

In the modular world of Ethereum, EIPs are the new genes.

To summarize that statement simply: Good EIPs spread effectively; bad EIPs fade away.

Ethereum is a responsive adaptive system, and EVM equivalent ORUs allow new genes to be implemented first at the edges of the organism, and once this new EIP proves its viability, it spreads outward to other ORUs. If an EIP is good enough, it will make its way back to the beating heart of Ethereum: L1.

Ethereum becomes an organism capable of responding to and adapting to its environment, even as that environment changes over time. The genome of an organism is fixed from the beginning, while Ethereum has the ability to invent and integrate new genes as needed to keep up with the ever-changing demands of the world.

Discovering value in the EVM equivalence paradigm and transforming that value into a public good can be shared throughout the Ethereum ecosystem, rather than being confined to showcasing value in a specific L2.

Retroactive Public Goods: Building Infrastructure for the Entire Ecosystem

Retroactive Public Goods Funding (RPGF) will transform Ethereum from a system that responds to its users into a system that can take proactive actions.

Optimism is pioneering a new model of funding public goods that injects Silicon Valley-style financial incentives into projects building public goods.

Revenue generated from L2 block space fees is directly used for innovators and founders who build useful things for Optimism L2. RPGF invests in the future, empowering public goods builders and ensuring that if they build useful public goods, funding will be waiting for them.

Impact = Value

The combination of RPGF and EVM equivalence means that once Optimism L2 builds something useful, other components of the entire EVM equivalent ecosystem can also be directly utilized.

The sale of block space on Optimism not only becomes the infrastructure for Optimism L2 but also becomes the infrastructure for all L2s, which ultimately becomes part of Ethereum itself.

The organic combination of RPGF and EVM equivalence provides us with an effective solution to the "tragedy of the commons," and this innovation applies not only to Optimism, nor just to L2 or Ethereum, but can address a major pain point faced by the entire world.

• Step 1: Fund public goods on Optimism;
• Step 2: Extend these free public goods to all other L2s;
• Step 3: Integrate these public goods into Ethereum;
• Step 4: Push the impact of public goods to the world;
• Step 5: Solve the global resource coordination problem and unlock the future of Star Trek.