Overview of smlXL's core products led by a16z: evm.code and evm.storage
The blockchain data and infrastructure company smlXL stands out with its two flagship products, evm.code and evm.storage, and a monthly traffic of 15,000 visits.Author: Lex Sokolin, Partner at Generative Ventures
Compiler: xiaozou, Jinse Finance
On October 23, 2023, cryptocurrency startup smlXL announced the completion of a $13.4 million seed round financing, with participation from a16z crypto, Greylock, and others.
Blockchain data and infrastructure company smlXL (pronounced "small-XL") stands out with its two flagship products, evm.code and evm.storage, and a monthly traffic of 15,000 visits. Given that there are only over 20,000 active developers in the entire blockchain space each month, this achievement is remarkable.
The company offers two services, evm.code and evm.storage, to help developers understand on-chain code and run higher-performing code in the future.
Let’s take a look at the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and smart contracts—the computational brain of Ethereum. The EVM plays a crucial role in executing transactions and managing data storage and memory. Smart contracts are compiled into EVM bytecode, consisting of operands and opcodes, which are predefined instructions executed by the EVM. This bytecode can be difficult to interpret as it is written in a hexadecimal numbering system, which is where smlXL's product, evm.codes, comes into play. It serves as an interactive reference for EVM opcodes.
The company’s core product, evm.storage, allows users to view Ethereum contract storage and state at any block height, the variables of verified contracts along with their corresponding values, browse complex storage structures such as nested mappings, arrays, and structs (a way to group related variables into a single construct), and view the storage history of specific variables, including changes to token balances and corresponding transaction hashes. smlXL is also expanding the coverage of evm.storage to include unverified Solidity contracts and plans to add features for tracking and simulating transactions across multiple blockchains.
Looking ahead, smlXL envisions building its product to function like a Google search. It aims to treat smart contracts as APIs and collections of smart contracts as applications. Ultimately, smlXL plans to achieve a user-friendly smart contract interaction experience.
We are also very interested in the potential of smlXL's products in optimizing gas consumption. By exploring different storage structures, developers can clearly see the gas costs associated with specific opcodes, allowing them to reduce costs for end users.
While smlXL can use its $13.4 million funding led by a16z as proof of its competitiveness, it is not the only player in the field. Cymbal has launched a "human-readable" Ethereum block explorer, while Space and Time (SxT) raised $20 million at a $300 million valuation, offering a decentralized data warehouse with blockchain index data. Subsquid is another blockchain indexing platform worth noting. After all, the number of active wallets using dApps has exceeded 20 million, creating a significant demand for efficient smart contract analysis.
