Designing a WebAssembly Runtime for Blockchains

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