Virtual Machines are a vital component of any smart contract executing blockchain. In our case, the world’s first privacy blockchain for RegDeFi needs to boast some unique tech to achieve confidentiality.
This week, we’re delivering the Release Candidate Library for Dusk-ABI and Rusk-VM. With this fifth release, we have all the Zero-Knowledge VM components in place. Next up: the public release of all libraries involved in the Rusk Smart Contract Platform.
RUSK-VM
💡 Smart contracts on compatible blockchains are executed by Virtual Machines: byte-code execution environments. These ensure relevant actions and events can be executed according to the terms of the contract. The contracts themselves are, however, fully transparent, and scaling to millions of users has proved elusive.
Enter the Rusk Virtual Machine.
The Rusk VM is the first Virtual Machine optimized for zero-knowledge cryptography. Unlike other networks that support smart contracts, Dusk Network ensures that personal and transactional data remain confidential, and the Rusk VM powers all of the network’s confidential transactions. This includes smart contract transactions, block rewards, and even gas refunds.
Integration of Rusk VM in Dusk Network effectively solves two major smart contract pain points: privacy & scalability
DUSK-ABI
ABI stands for Application Binary Interface, and the Dusk-ABI plays an important role in connecting the Rusk Virtual Machine with the smart contract platform. Thanks to the implementation of Dusk-ABI, we make it a possibility for smart contracts to natively access host functionalities. Examples of such host functionalities include the previously released PLONK library for zero-knowledge proof verification, and the Poseidon library for zk-friendly hashing.
As a bonus, the Dusk-ABI does so with consistency across the board. Being a communication layer between the Rusk VM and binaries like PLONK and Poseidon, it creates flexibility between these components; we can easily update these libraries without running into any problems. There are no hardcoded functions inside the contracts, which makes it possible to upgrade individual modules without breaking existing contracts that rely on them. This makes Dusk Network forward compatible with future updates in fields of zero-knowledge and hashing.
👉 Continue reading about Rusk VM here & here, and Dusk ABI here & here.
The E2E RC Release schedule
The End-to-End Release Candidate is a feature-freeze, and signals the version of the blockchain protocol that we want to go live with. The Release Candidate includes various libraries, which together form the E2E Release Candidate.
👉 You can find the full schedule here.
Previously we released: