Designing a WebAssembly Runtime for Blockchains

In this presentation we will overview how Wasmer is providing the best infrastructure for the Blockchain platforms

Transcript

1. Designing a WebAssembly runtime for Blockchains
2. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Hi
3. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio How to execute WebAssembly?
4. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio How to execute WebAssembly? • In your Browser, using JavaScript
5. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio What about executing WebAssembly outside the browser?
6. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio How to execute
 WebAssembly
 outside of the Browser? • Interpreter • Compile Ahead of Time / Just in Time (AOT / JIT)
7. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Performance ⏱
8. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio How to execute
 WebAssembly performantly
 outside of the Browser? • Interpreter • Compile Ahead of Time / Just in Time (AOT / JIT)
9. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Easy
10. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio WebAssembly instructions are easy to map to underlying chipset instructions
11. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio How?
12. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio • Cranelift
 Internal project of Mozilla to eventually replace their IonMonkey JS implementation • Singlepass
 Compiler focused on compilation speed and fast runtime • LLVM
 Compiler focused on optimizations
13. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Compilation speed Runtime speed Singlepass Fast (1x) Efficient (2~3x) Cranelift Slow (10x) A bit faster (1.8x) LLVM Very slow (20x~50x) Almost Native (1~1.2x) Expected to have better optimizations over time
14. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Speed, Speed, Speed
15. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio We are obsessed about speed
16. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Having a fast WebAssembly runtime is critical
17. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Problem: There are programs that take longer to compile than they do to execute
18. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio JIT Bombs
19. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Compiling php.wasm takes
 1:15s with Cranelift
20. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Singlepass ⏩
21. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Singlepass is a backend for the WebAssembly runtime focused on compilation speed. It emits machine code as the module is being parsed
22. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Linear O(N) compilation time
23. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Compiling php.wasm takes
 300ms with Singlepass
24. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio How to use it?
25. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio It’s just one line of code ✍
26. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio
27. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio speed.wasmer.io
28. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Availability of Wasmer WebAssembly Runtime
29. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Wasmer is written in Rust
30. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio But… you can have clients in any language
31. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio But we have embeddings for almost any other language • Go: Perlin, Cosmos, Ethereum • Rust: Polkadot, EVM • Python • …and many more!
32. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Metering ⛽
33. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Metering consists on measuring the cost of running certain instructions while being able to halt the execution if the costs is greater than expected
34. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio This is of vital importance for Blockchain platforms
35. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Costs should remain deterministic regardless of the backend
36. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio How metering is done today • Transforms the WebAssembly module, injecting the calls to the gas meter
37. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio
38. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio This is the best strategy if you can’t access the VM directly (e.g. browser environments)
39. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio But… can be improved?
40. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio YES
41. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Our solution: Metering through Middleware
42. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Middleware let us customize the parsing in a backend- agnostic way, at parsing time
43. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio How? • The metering code is generated at parsing time through Middleware • Gas functions are inlined into the function body. No extra calls are required
44. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Metering in Numbers 0us 1.75us 3.5us 5.25us 7us Not metered Middleware WASM Transforms Baseline Time spent on metering
45. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Let’s take a closer look • Metering 8x faster than with code generated with WASM transforms (460us vs 3,680us) • 2x faster in overall runtime speed • No WASM transforms overhead
46. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio What else can we improve?
47. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Contracts
48. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio A contract is a set of imports and exports that must be fulfilled in the module
49. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio WASI is a contract
50. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Emscripten is a contract
51. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Ewasm is a contract
52. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Show me the code
53. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio We can pin a specific version of a contract to the WebAssembly module
54. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Shipping soon
55. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio WebAssembly modules can be analyzed against a static spec before running
56. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Is WASI the ABI we want to use for smart contracts?
57. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio OasisLabs: YES https://medium.com/oasislabs/blockchain-flavored-wasi-50e3612b8eba
58. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio How? • Using the filesystem to get the contract input and • Use Commands to call a contract • Use environment vars to get the amount of tokens transferred to the contract (VALUE) • Use environment args to get the blockchain address
59. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Or perhaps we can use a specific ABI for it?
60. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Ewasm
61. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio WASI vs Ewasm • Oasis WASI proposal uses the WASI ABI to interact with the environment • It would seem like WASI would help on running other modules that already run on WASI • eWASM have a explicit API
62. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Packaging
63. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio SPAM Alert:
 wapm.io
64. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio We need decentralized packages
65. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio IPFS integration in wapm coming soon
66. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio …what about tampering?
67. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Package signing
68. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Package Signing is like the modern version of using sealing wax with a difficult to replicate imprint to verify the authenticity and integrity of the letter.
69. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Package Signing let us trust that the package we are using proceed from the owner
70. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio But wait, there is more! • Preparing support for AArch64 (ARM) coming in the next months • More languages! • Tiering!
71. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Why use Wasmer? • Vendor Neutral. No hidden interests. Our business is on creating the best WebAssembly runtime • Trusted and used already by blockchain companies • Rapid iteration process to bring the best runtime EVER
72. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Recap • Fastest and modular WebAssembly runtime • Available in most popular languages (Rust, Go, Python…) • Adapted to work fast for blockchain use cases • Continuously improving
73. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Our business is solely focused on creating the fastest WebAssembly runtime
74. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Q & A 1
75. syrus@wasmer.io @wasmerio github.com/wasmerio Technical Demo https://github.com/wasmerio/ewasm-workshop