A while back, we announced that we would be releasing a significant upgrade to our chain, adding a new game-changing feature and becoming the first substrate to offer Parallel VM performance features with the Polkadot ecosystem.

Your questions and curiosity about the update and its benefits for all builders in the ecosystem are essential to us.

Your interest fuels our commitment to creating a platform that serves your needs. That is why, before we dive deep into the features and benefits of Parallel VM, we would like to take a moment to recap the development progress so far, the main issues we had to overcome, and, more importantly, where we are today in the overall process.

The road to development thus far

Our first step during the upgrade was to ensure that our current compatibility layer with EVM chains Frontier was updated to the latest version.

The last update commit of the Frontier version was made three years ago, and in our specific case, this meant that the custom pallets needed to be updated, including those that take care of governance, such as EVM-accounts, EVM-interop, Incentives, and reward pool.

An important note is that among the pallets mentioned, EVM accounts and EVM-interop both use Frontier’s AddressMapping to implement interoperability with EVM accounts. This is a critical component that needed meticulous testing during the entire upgrade process thus far.

Our approach for this first phase was to split the upgrade into two consequent versions, including having async backing (a precautionary step), and the running the actual update.
The most tedious and time consuming work is fixing all the compile errors,however we opted not to rush the process as it needs to be flawless.

If all goes according development plans Frontier update will be complete this week, and we we expect that the up full upgrade be done by November.

We hope that this mini update has shed light on our progress, and now would like to take you time to dive deeper into the characteristics of the Parallel VM, share with your our strategy on leveraging the opportunity as well as provide a brief roadmap of development.

Embracing the Future: Parallel VM for the Polkadot Network

In response to the ever-evolving landscape of the crypto industry, we are proud to announce our plan to integrate a parallel virtual machine (VM) within the Polkadot network. This groundbreaking approach will harness the power of Starkware/Starknet ZK-Rollup or Chakra protocol, positioning CLV as a high-performance sequencer in the DOT ecosystem.

The Opportunity

Currently, no single chain offers a parallel VM for the Polkadot network. With the $DOT pledge at a low point and a scarcity of high-market cap projects, this presents a unique opportunity to create a chain that attracts significant Total Value Locked (TVL). Our objective is to develop a parallel VM chain that acts as a high-performance sequencer, enhancing scalability and throughput while maintaining robust security.

Strategic Options

Initially we were a exploring two primary options to achieve this :

1. Upgrade the Current Chain’s VM: Utilizing Frontier EVM, compatible with substrates like CLV (Substrate-based BlockSTM), we can enhance the existing infrastructure.

2. Build a New Parallel VM Chain: Mirroring the infrastructure of successful parallel VM chains like Madara and Monad, we aim to create a new chain from the ground up.

To save time and get faster completed result we opted to go for option 1.

Following Steps

Our immediate focus is to determine the optimal path forward by evaluating engineering resources and timelines for each option. Key goals include:

1. Seamless Block Migration: Ensuring block migration from the current substrate chain to a parallel VM without compromising security.
2. Enhanced Throughput: Achieving higher transactions per second (TPS) to address the limitations of current substrate TPS.
3. Scalability and Innovation: Opening new avenues for network scalability and building capabilities that can extend to other networks like Bitcoin and Solana.

Overcoming Challenges

Parallelism in blockchain is complex. Web3 applications differ significantly from Web2, and opportunities for parallelism among transactions are minimal. Additionally, parallelizing the EVM presents challenges such as storage bloat and maintaining fee structures. Our integration strategy will address these challenges to ensure a seamless and efficient transition.

Scaling Awareness and Collaboration

To foster community engagement and collaboration, we will be hosting a series of activities:

- Hackathon: In collaboration with Polkadot, we will bring together developers to build projects using our new chain powered by the Chakra protocol.
- AMA Sessions: Covering partnership benefits, milestones, and the roadmap, these sessions will dive into the benefits of higher throughput through parallel transaction execution.

Integration Plan and Schedule

Our integration with the Chakra Parallel EVM involves several key steps:

1. Adaptation of CLV Frontier and Parallel EVM: Extracting global storage and adapting the current version of Frontier used by CLV.
2. Pallet Adaptation: Modifying and verifying interoperability with EVM accounts.
3. Testing and State Machine Parallelization: Ensuring robust performance and scalability.

Commitment to Excellence

As we venture into this new phase, we remain dedicated to our core values of transparency, security, and user satisfaction. We understand the dynamic nature of the crypto industry and are committed to providing a product that adapts and evolves to meet your needs.

We invite our community to stay tuned for further updates and to participate in our upcoming events. Your feedback and support are invaluable as we continue to innovate and improve the CLV Wallet.

Source : Clover Finance - Aug 22, 2024