Parallel EVM Interpretation: How to Overcome Blockchain Performance Bottlenecks?

The performance of blockchain networks has become a bottleneck for further development in the industry. Over the past decade, blockchain has rapidly evolved from Bitcoin's distributed ledger to Ethereum's decentralized applications. However, with the rise of applications such as DeFi and NFTs, there are higher demands for network performance.

Various scaling solutions have been proposed in the industry, such as sharding, DAG, Plasma, sidechains, etc. However, they still struggle to meet the rapidly growing transaction demands. Against this backdrop, parallel blockchains have emerged.

Parallel EVM is a new narrative that emerges after the on-chain transaction volume reaches a certain level. It is mainly divided into two categories: monolithic blockchains and modular blockchains. Monolithic blockchains are further divided into L1 and L2. Parallel L1 public chains have formed two major camps: EVM and non-EVM. Currently, the parallel EVM narrative is in its early development stage.

From a technical implementation perspective, the parallel EVM mainly consists of two major aspects: the virtual machine and the parallel execution mechanism.

1. The virtual machine is a virtual process virtual machine for distributed state machines, used to execute contracts.

2. Parallel execution refers to leveraging 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 divided into three main categories:

1. Message Passing
2. Shared memory ( includes memory lock model and optimistic parallelization )
3. Strict State Access List

Regardless of the mechanism used, it has increased the technical complexity.

From the perspective of development prospects, the parallel EVM narrative has a broad market space:

• The current overall circulating market value of L1 and L2 is $752.123 billion.
• The market capitalization of parallel blockchain circulation is 52.539 billion USD, accounting for about 7%.
• The market value of parallel EVM-related projects is $2.339 billion, accounting for only 4% of the market value of parallel Blockchain.

Main projects include:

1. Sei: Claimed to be the first parallel EVM Blockchain, using an optimistic parallelization mechanism.
2. Monad: Combines superscalar pipelining and optimistic parallelism, favored by capital.
3. Canto: Provide free public infrastructure, parallel EVM upgrades are about to take place.
4. Fuel: Modular "Ethereum rollup operating system", using UTXO model
5. Neon/Eclipse/Lumio: L2 solutions that integrate the capabilities of other L1 chains

From a security perspective, parallel execution increases technical complexity and may introduce new security vulnerabilities. Evaluating project security can consider aspects such as team background, code maintainability, and programming languages.

Looking to the future, the parallel EVM narrative is still in its early stages, and more L1 and L2 projects will join the competition. Infrastructure optimization will bring faster speeds, lower costs, and higher efficiency, providing a better foundation for Web3 innovation. Investors, in addition to focusing on technology, also need to comprehensively consider narratives, market capitalization, liquidity, and other factors to discover potential projects.