Hello, dear readers, I am the uncle. This afternoon we will discuss the technical details of @Dusk Piecrust VM.
Many people often criticize the 'speed' when looking at privacy public chains. Because zero-knowledge proofs (ZK) are extremely complex to compute, traditional virtual machines (VM) often require a lot of time for calculations when handling these types of proofs, which is why 'privacy' and 'performance' have been seen as mutually exclusive in the past.
But in last night's recording, the uncle heard a term that gets tech enthusiasts excited: Piecrust VM. This is not the kind of product that comes out just by modifying open-source code, but rather a dedicated virtual machine that the Dusk team has completely built from scratch using the Rust programming language.
1. Why abandon EVM and develop Piecrust in-house?
Most chains choose to be compatible with EVM because there are many developers. However, the instruction set of EVM was not originally designed for ZK computation. Forcing ZK to run on EVM is like making a family sedan race on an F1 track, completely locking the performance.
Piecrust is specifically designed for ZK computation. It adopts a WebAssembly (WASM) architecture and has a built-in instruction set optimized for ZK. This means that when processing privacy proofs, it does not require heavy translation but performs "native computation" directly at the underlying layer.
2. Key highlights from the recording: JIT compilation and state snapshots
During the recording, CTO Hein mentioned a very critical technical detail: JIT (Just-In-Time) compilation technology.
Extreme performance: With JIT, Piecrust can instantly translate contract code into machine code during execution. This allows the generation (Proving) and verification (Verification) speed of ZK proofs to reach sub-second levels, completely solving the delay issues of privacy transactions.
State Snapshots: This is the hardest point in my opinion. Piecrust supports extremely fast state switching and snapshot access. This ensures "zero lag" in data reading when handling large-scale parallel transactions, and is also the confidence behind Dusk's claim of "instant finality."
3. Determinism: The "Get Out of Jail Free" card for financial institutions
For financial institutions, the biggest fear is "uncertainty." Piecrust ensures that the execution results of any compliant transaction are completely consistent across different nodes (Determinism). No matter which corner of the world your node is in, the result of the computation is unshakable. This is the most basic and core threshold for traditional finance to enter the on-chain world.
The uncle's murmurs:
Many bloggers will only tell you that Dusk has privacy and compliance, but what the uncle wants you to know is that these features rely on the Piecrust "nuclear engine" for support.
Technology should not just be terms on a PPT, but should truly solve "performance bottlenecks." Once you understand Piecrust, you will realize why Dusk can maintain its lead in the RWA track.
