Layer-two project Cartesi has unveiled a rollup-centric design for
its Cartesi Machine, a Linux-based virtual machine that would allow
developers to run any type of computing application secured via
blockchains.
Cartesi’s design uses a slightly modified version of Optimistic Rollups, a layer-two technology developed within the Ethereum ecosystem,
to power its virtual machine. In contrast with Optimism’s
implementation, which uses this type of rollups primarily to maintain
full compatibility with Ethereum smart contracts, Cartesi wants to offer
a traditional development environment.
The Cartesi virtual
machine emulates a RISC-V microprocessor architecture, an open-source
alternative to the ARM instruction set commonly used in smartphones or
Apple’s M1-based computers. The RISC-V architecture allows running
standard software environments based on Linux. For developers building
on Cartesi, this means that smart contracts can be developed in
virtually any language and development ecosystem, provided it is
supported by Linux.
The rollup-based design allows Cartesi to
connect such a complex environment to the blockchain, piggybacking on
its security model to ensure the validity of what happens on layer-two.
The premise of a rollup is that all changes to the state of an external
environment, for example wallet balances and exchange transactions, are
eventually published in compressed form to the main layer one
blockchain, for example Ethereum.
Optimistic rollups rely on
publishing the data on the blockchain and allowing a challenge period.
During this time, users can submit “fraud proofs” to signal that the
data is incorrect, triggering a dispute that should result in a
correction of that data. Once resolved, the state is finalized and
guaranteed to be valid through the blockchain’s security model. The long
withdrawal period is nonetheless a common point of criticism.
Cartesi’s
version of Optimistic Rollups uses so-called interactive dispute
resolutions to allow the blockchain itself to compute the correct
version of the data with minimal cost. Erick de Moura, founder of
Cartesi, told Cointelegraph that this design is what allows running much
more complex computations than what is offered by the Ethereum virtual
machine:
“Other rollups solutions are only making
Solidity code perform better on layer-2. We are, however, creating
something that is much closer to a real decentralized computer with a
real operating system.”
De Moura also stressed that
Cartesi’s design is blockchain-agnostic, and works on other blockchains
like Binance Smart Chain or Matic — with more integrations to be
developed in the future as well.
It remains to be seen if Cartesi’s proposition will find traction. Amid virtually all smart contract platforms adopting Solidity,
the project is going against the grain. Nonetheless, the Linux-based
environment could be attractive for those building much more complex
DApps.
source link : https://cointelegraph.com/news/new-project-uses-rollups-to-build-linux-based-decentralized-computer
