RE: SVM - Steem Virtual Machine: My Experiment with Bringing EVM to Steem
I like the idea, and projects for smart contracts/L2 tokens have been discussed many times, but I'm not sure about actual demand. In recent years, it always seems to fizzle out. For example, I'm not sure what ever happened to this project from @roadofrich and @elitedevops. It still seems to exist, but I'm not aware that anyone ever made much use of it. Beyond the technical challenge, from the outside looking in, it seems like maybe adoption is also a challenge for a project of this nature.
OTOH, Steem Engine had some success before 2020, so some demand does exist, and EVM compatibility is definitely a win. I think the big advantage for Steem Engine was that they mapped token issuance to posting & curation rewards on posts with specific Steem Tags/Communities and also provided hosting for Condenser-based web sites with the appropriate filtering applied.
Also, I suppose there's some overlap with "Later Development" plans in the MeeRay proposal from @futureshock (if that's still on the horizon[?]).
To me, priority 1 should be bridging to other chains. To my knowledge, not much effort has ever been expended in that direction, and it seems like it would have a great deal of initial demand.
Hello @remlaps,
None of the examples you provided conceptually align with my vision for what SVM could become. SteemEngine was impressive, but it served as an alternative to SMTs—it didn’t port the EVM. I haven’t yet studied the project mentioned by @roadofrich in depth, but I plan to review it more closely. I also don’t believe the SVM initiative overlaps with MeeRay.
The core challenge lies in the bridge—and specifically, how to make it truly decentralized. Right now, anyone who can deploy a token on EVM-compatible chains can run a bridge service: a user sends STEEM to a designated wallet, and then STEEM is minted on the bridged chain. However, this setup is not decentralized—it relies on trusted intermediaries.
SVM currently faces the same limitation. Steem’s permission layer, as it stands, doesn’t offer a clear path toward a fully permissionless bridge. My vision for SVM is an entirely EVM-compatible layer—which I don’t believe MeeRay is, or can realistically become.
The critical question remains: How can we achieve a trustless bridge? Once assets are inside SVM, the system becomes 100% permissionless, enabling integrations with Chainlink, IBC, and other decentralized infrastructure. But getting assets into SVM in a trustless way is the missing piece.
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