Blockchain VMs
| Dimension | WasmX | EthereumVM | CosmWasm |
|---|
| Protocol Upgrades | 95% live on a running chain, 5% hard fork | 100% Hard Fork | Limited Governed Upgrades |
| Smart Contract Languages | any WASM-compiled or interpreted by a WASM contract | Solidity | Rust |
| MultiChain | yes | no | no |
| CrossChain | yes | no | yes |
| VM host API extensions | yes | no | no |
| Mobile support | yes | no | no |
| Decentralized development | yes | no | no |
Smart Contract Languages
- wasmX: any WASM-compiled language or any language with an interpreter compiled to WASM. Currently: AssemblyScript, Solidity, Rust, Go/TinyGo, JavaScript, Python, visual language for creating finite state machines, taylor (Lisp-like language)
- EthereumVM: Solidity
- CosmWasm: Rust
wasmX language support:
| Language | compiled to WASM | interpreted by WASM contract | compiled to assembly and interpreted by WASM contract |
|---|
| Solidity | - | - | yes |
| Yul | - | - | yes |
| EVM assembly | yes | yes | - |
| Rust | yes | - | - |
| AssemblyScript | yes | - | - |
| JavaScript | yes | yes | - |
| Python | - | yes | - |
| TinyGo | yes | - | - |
| C/C++ | yes | - | - |
| graphical FSM | - | yes | - |
MultiChain
- wasmX: supports running multiple chains on the same node client.
- EthereumVM: no
- CosmWasm: no
CrossChain
- wasmX: supports cross-chain communication between wasmX blockchains and optionally, between wasmX and Cosmos chains (IBC)
- EthereumVM: no
- CosmWasm chains: yes, between Cosmos chains throught IBC.
Protocol Upgrades
- wasmX: 95% of updates will be done live, on a running chain, through community governance. Including new feature additions, data structures extension, consensus changes. No need for validators to synchronize human presence for an upgrade.
- EthereumVM: hard forks for adding features, validators meet at appointed time for upgrade.
- CosmWasm/Cosmos: governed upgrades are limited to the hardcoded Cosmos SDK structure. Changing consensus protocols or data encodings requires a fork.
VM host API extensions
- wasmX: yes, host API extensions are supported. Current API interfaces: wasmX, ewasm (EVM in WASM), CosmWasm, p2p, grpc, multichain, crosschain, SQL-like and key-value databases, IMAP, SMTP.
- EthereumVM: no
- CosmWasm: no
Mobile support
- wasmX: yes, we have tested running a wasmX blockchain on Android and iOS
- EthereumVM: no
- CosmWasm: no
Decentralized development
- wasmX: yes, anyone can build WASM modules to replace or add features and propose it by governance in a public way, with the same visibility as any other proposal.
- EthereumVM: multiple clients and teams with unequal public visibility
- CosmWasm: centralized CosmWasm development, multiple chains with centralized teams using CosmWasm
WASM standards
wasmX vs. WASIX (https://wasix.org/)
| Dimension | WasmX | WASI | WASIX |
|---|
| Target | Multi-node consensus | Single CPU | Multi CPU |