HEMVM: A Heterogeneous Blockchain Framework for Interoperable Virtual Machines

Abstract

This paper introduces HEMVM, an innovative heterogeneous blockchain framework that seamlessly integrates diverse virtual machines (VMs), including the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and the Move Virtual Machine (MoveVM), into a unified system. This integration facilitates interoperability while retaining compatibility with existing Ethereum and Move toolchains by preserving high-level language constructs. HEMVM’s unique cross-VM operations allow users to interact with contracts across various VMs using any wallet software, effectively resolving the fragmentation in user experience caused by differing VM designs. Our experimental results demonstrate that HEMVM is both fast and efficient, incurring minimal overhead (less than 4.4%) for intra-VM transactions and achieving up to 9,300 TPS for cross-VM transactions. Our results also show that the cross-VM operations in HEMVM are sufficiently expressive to support complex decentralized finance interactions across multiple VMs. Finally, the parallelized prototype of HEMVM shows performance improvements up to 44.8% compared to the sequential version of HEMVM under workloads with mixed transaction types.