The concept behind the Vyper Challenge was to develop one thing that was designed on the language stage to naturally exhibit a excessive diploma of security. The venture was initially authored by Vitalik as a proof-of-concept substitute for Serpent, its predecessor, however shortly after its creation Vyper discovered itself with out a devoted maintainer. Fortunately, there have been enthusiastic group members that took up the torch and continued growth of the venture, and we (the EF Python Staff) grew to become re-involved within the venture for a while earlier this yr.
This fall, a preliminary safety audit was carried out by the Consensys Diligence workforce on the Python-based Vyper compiler. You possibly can learn the outcomes for your self right here.
We encourage you to learn the report, nonetheless, there are two most important take-aways.
- There are a number of critical bugs within the Vyper compiler.
- The codebase has a excessive stage of technical debt which is able to make addressing these points advanced.
Because the current Python-based Vyper implementation is just not but manufacturing prepared, it has been moved out of the ethereum github group into its personal group: vyperlang. The present maintainers are planning to deal with the problems independently as soon as once more, however we’ll proceed to comply with the venture intently right here: > https://github.com/vyperlang/vyper
In the meantime, our workforce continues work on a Rust-based compiler in tandem. Extra on that under, however first, right here’s a bit extra on how we bought to the place we’re at present.
Over the course of this yr we labored with the venture maintainers to concentrate on enhancing the code high quality and structure of the venture. After a couple of months of labor we have been skeptical that the python codebase was more likely to ship on the concept Vyper promised. The codebase contained a major quantity of technical and architectural debt, and from our perspective it did not appear to be the present maintainers have been targeted on fixing this.
Exploring Rust
Earlier this yr in August, we explored producing a model of the Vyper compiler constructed on essentially totally different structure. The objective was to put in writing a compiler in Rust that leverages the present work by the Solidity workforce and makes use of the YUL intermediate illustration to permit us to focus on EVM or EWASM throughout compilation. A Rust based mostly compiler may be simply compiled to WASM, making the compiler rather more moveable than one based mostly in Python. By constructing on prime of YUL we might get the EVM and EWASM compilation without spending a dime, solely requiring the compiler to deal with the transformation from a Vyper AST to YUL.
We have been sufficiently far together with our Rust based mostly Vyper compiler when the Python Vyper audit was launched, and have been assured within the directionl. The audit confirmed many considerations across the python codebase and helped to validate the path we have taken.
The work continues
That mentioned, the maintainers of the Python Vyper codebase do intend to proceed with the venture. Whereas we don’t plan to have continued involvement within the python codebase, we want them luck but in addition wished to make word of current occasions to keep away from inadvertently signalling that the venture was secure to make use of.
So at current there are at present two “Vyper” compilers: The EF-supported work in the direction of constructing a compiler written in Rust to ship on the unique concept of Vyper, and the Python effort which is able to work independently towards the identical objectives within the Python codebase. We’re hopeful that we are able to proceed working collectively in the direction of a single “Vyper” with a number of implementations, and we’ll hold everybody updated because the venture strikes ahead.
