Until now, developing in web3 required a developer to learn an additional language on most chains, especially if they wanted their decentralized application to be compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
However, Arbitrum is about to launch Arbitrum Stylus into production, which allows smart contracts to be written in languages such as Rust, C, C++, and others that compile to WebAssembly. This innovation goes beyond EVM compatibility to create what is known as EVM+.
What is EVM+?
EVM+ is what makes Stylus truly special, as it includes a second virtual machine (VM) that runs WebAssembly (WASM) and coordinates with the EVM, while being fully compatible.
Additionally, the Stylus SDK uses ABIs, so one contract can call another regardless of whether it was written in Solidity or another language supported by Stylus. This allows, for example, a Decentralized Exchange (DEX) to list an ERC-20 token developed with Rust or C.
Another benefit of Stylus is the ability to use cryptographic libraries or functionalities that are not currently available in Solidity, opening up new possibilities in decentralized application development.
Moreover, Stylus allows for more efficient execution than the EVM, as using more efficient languages than Solidity reduces computation costs by 10x and memory costs by 100x. Initially, Stylus supports Rust, C, and C++, but other languages like Go, Sway, Move, and Cairo can also be supported.
In the following diagram, we can see the behavior of EVM+ compared to the EVM, highlighting the previously mentioned WASM VM that runs WebAssembly instead of bytecode. WASM is widely known in the programming world, having had decades of compiler improvements for Rust and C.
EVM+ is called this because it does not replace the Ethereum Virtual Machine but rather adds virtues to the contracts that can be developed and compatible with Ethereum. Therefore, today, developing in Stylus represents an evolution for projects that want to implement improvements that were previously unavailable in Solidity, without losing compatibility with the EVM.
Opportunities to Build with Stylus
As one of Arbitrum's great innovations, we can foresee many incentives and opportunities to build with this technology.
It is a good time to stay updated on Arbitrum DAO's initiatives regarding Stylus, such as their grants focused on this technology and their participation as sponsors in hackathons where the use of Stylus will be part of the criteria to win some of the offered prizes.
But looking beyond economic incentives, the use of Stylus represents a paradigm shift in building decentralized applications, which can have better and greater functionalities by using high-level languages in their development.
Arbitrum Stylus Resources
Arbitrum Hacker Toolkit (Stylus and more)