Initia: What Should a Good Modular EVM Look Like?
Why did the modular public chain Initia choose to build its own InitiaEVM, and what makes it special?Original author: Initia
Original compilation: Alex Liu, Foresight News
Initia is a modular L1 public chain that allows for the deployment and vertical integration of many "interwoven" Rollups, officially referred to as "Minitias" (similar concept to Dymension and its RollApps).
Built on the Cosmos SDK, with existing EVM solutions like Evmos in the Cosmos ecosystem, why did Initia choose to build its own Initia EVM, and what makes it special?
VM-Level Interoperability
Initia aims to make Minitias the simplest way to build high-speed, flexible, and interoperable application chains, where the virtual machine is just a tool in the Minitia toolkit, chosen based on the specific use cases or language preferences of the team— the flexibility brought by multiple options is the benefit of modular design. Minitias can freely choose between Initia EVM, Initia MVM (Move VM), and Wasm VM as their VM.
In a Rollup-centric future, thousands of Rollups need to interact seamlessly, possessing inherent interoperability rather than being added later—even across virtual machines. This concept has driven Initia to optimize InitiaEVM for cross-virtual machine interoperability, with InitiaEVM, InitiaMVM, and WasmVM being interoperable across virtual machines.
EVM and Cosmos Dual Compatibility
Initia EVM is designed as a module of the Cosmos SDK, adding interoperability with Cosmos and IBC while supporting Solidity smart contracts and EVM operations.
With complete EVM compatibility, Solidity contracts can be deployed and migrated to Initia EVM without modification.
More importantly, Initia EVM binds the EVM and Cosmos layers together through a custom Bank Interface (BI), replacing the standard Cosmos x/Bank module responsible for Native Coin accounts with ERC20.
Cosmos Bank == ERC20.
Initia's MoveVM also uses a similar model.
Thus, EVM Minitias, although part of the Cosmos chain, only have one token standard: ERC20.
There is no need to consider concepts like Cosmos tokens, interfaces, or token conversions. Solidity projects can migrate effortlessly and choose to connect to Cosmos.
IBC Priority
IBC is the pride of the Cosmos ecosystem, a cross-chain protocol that facilitates asset transfer between different Cosmos chains. In InitiaEVM:
- Migration out: ERC20 created in Solidity smart contracts can be immediately transferred to other chains via IBC without any fancy operations.
- Migration in: Native Cosmos assets can be transferred to EVM Minitia via IBC, generating ERC20.
This makes asset transfers between Minitias simple and easy.
Simplified Precompiles
Initia EVM can directly execute any Cosmos message or query the Cosmos chain state from Solidity contracts. Inter-chain accounts, ICQ, Slinky queries—everything is available. The development experience is no different from developing on EVM chains, embracing the vast Solidity ecosystem and reducing the development burden.
Cross-EVM Interaction
InitiaEVM has integrated IBC hooks, supporting multi-chain, cross-virtual machine, and contract interactions, which are crucial for the new multi-chain world order.
Conclusion
In Initia's view, a good modular EVM is, first and foremost, "just an EVM." Developers can run their past Solidity programs on new application chains without learning any new concepts or modifying any source code, achieving zero-cost migration. Secondly, it needs to have interoperability across Rollups and different virtual machines, token standards, asset transfer capabilities, and underlying chain integration to provide a good user experience in the future multi-chain world.
