Parallel EVM: A New Approach to Break Through Blockchain Performance Bottlenecks

The performance of blockchain networks has become a bottleneck for further development in the industry. From Bitcoin pioneering a new model for decentralized electronic currency transactions to Ethereum achieving decentralized applications, blockchain technology has undergone rapid development for over a decade. However, with the explosion of new applications such as DeFi and NFTs, the performance of existing blockchain networks is struggling to meet the rapidly growing transaction demands.

Against this background, parallel Blockchains have emerged. Parallel EVM, as a new technological narrative, marks the formation of a competitive landscape in the field of parallel Blockchains, where two strong contenders are vying for dominance: on one side, the parallel non-EVM camp represented by Solana and Aptos, and on the other side, the parallel EVM camp represented by Sei and Monad.

From the perspective of market size, the parallel EVM narrative still has significant growth potential. Currently, the overall circulating market value of L1 and L2 is $752.1 billion, of which parallel blockchains account for $52.5 billion, only 7%. The circulating market value of parallel EVM-related projects is $2.3 billion, accounting for only 4% of the parallel blockchain market value. This indicates that the parallel EVM narrative has substantial market growth potential.

From a technical implementation perspective, parallel EVM can be mainly divided into two categories:

1. L1 Public Chain: New public chains with built-in parallel execution capabilities, such as Sei, Monad, and Canto.

2. L2 Scaling Solutions: By integrating the capabilities of other L1 chains, provide scaling capabilities for cross-ecosystem collaboration, such as Neon, Eclipse, and Lumio.

In addition, there are modular Blockchain solutions like Fuel that offer more flexible combinatorial capabilities.

To understand the technical principles of parallel EVM, it is necessary to approach it from two aspects:

1. Virtual Machine: In the context of Blockchain, a virtual machine is a virtualization of a distributed state machine, used to execute smart contracts.

2. Parallel Execution: Leverage the advantages of multi-core processors to execute multiple transactions simultaneously, ensuring that the final state is consistent with serial execution.

The parallel execution mechanism is mainly divided into three categories:

1. Message Passing: Each executor ( Actor ) can only access its own private data and achieves data exchange by sending messages.

2. Shared Memory: Includes two models: memory lock model and optimistic parallelization. Memory locks protect shared resources through a locking mechanism, while optimistic parallelization executes first and then verifies conflicts.

3. Strict State Access List: Based on the UTXO model, pre-calculate the account addresses accessed by transactions to form an access list.

Various parallel EVM projects have adopted different technical routes:

• Sei: Transitioning from the memory lock model to optimistic parallelization and introducing a dynamic dependency generator to optimize execution efficiency.

• Monad: Combining superscalar pipeline technology and improved optimistic parallel mechanisms, achieving a performance of 10000 TPS.

• Canto: Plans to introduce Cyclone EVM to achieve optimistic parallelization.

• Fuel: Based on the UTXO model, it achieves parallel execution by analyzing transaction dependencies.

• Neon: Simulating EVM on the Solana network, combining the advantages of both.

• Eclipse: A modular solution for executing transactions using SVM and settling transactions with EVM.

• Lumio: Connects Ethereum and Aptos ecosystems through Move VM execution and EVM settlement.

The emergence of parallel EVM has opened up new pathways for improving Blockchain performance, promising to drive the industry into a new stage of development. However, the complexity of the technology has also brought new security challenges that require the attention of both developers and investors. In the future, as more projects enter the competition, the field of parallel EVM is expected to witness more innovations and breakthroughs.