Virtual machines: from the fundamentals to practical applications

What is a virtual machine and what does it do?

A virtual machine is a software environment that allows you to run different operating systems without making changes to your device. If you want to use Windows on a MacBook or try Linux, you can do this in an isolated space through a virtual machine. While your host system continues to operate in the background without affecting the base, the VM consumes memory, computing power, and storage resources from the underlying potential resources.

Hypervisor: The Foundation of Virtual Machines

Virtual machines operate through software known as a hypervisor. The hypervisor abstracts physical hardware resources such as (CPU, memory, and storage) to allow multiple VMs to run simultaneously. There are two types of hypervisors observed:

Type 1: Installed directly on server hardware, yet used in data centers and cloud platforms, continually utilized for performance and efficiency.

Type 2: Resides within the operating system of the product and generates maliciousness during development, testing, and trials.

Once the VM is launched, it can be used like an ordinary computer — installing software, browsing the internet, and creating applications are all possible.

Why use virtual machines?

Testing new operating systems risk-free

You can experiment with different operating systems on your main computer without making any changes to its production. This method is performed under normal conditions, seemingly in an isolated testing environment.

Isolating dangerous programs

If you don't want to put your production computer at risk by executing unknown or excessive files, you should try them in a VM. Even if a malicious payload or system exploit occurs, your underlying computer remains safe.

Continuing to adhere to the old software

There are programs that only work on Windows XP. A virtual machine can recreate that valuable environment, allowing programs that cannot run on modern hardware to continue their impacts.

Code generation and verification on various platforms

Developers gain the ability to see how code behaves across different operating systems and to test their interpretations of applications in production environments in four-coin ecosystems.

Launching cloud services

Cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud are built on virtual machines. When leveraging cloud databases, devices are deployed in remote data centers, allowing websites, applications, or databases to operate smoothly and efficiently.

How Do Virtual Machines Influence Blockchain?

Blockchain networks typically utilize the resources of virtual machines to support testing environments. Blockchain VMs are mechanisms for executing smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApp).

The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) enables developers to write smart contracts in Solidity, Vyper, and Yul languages and deploy them on Ethereum and other EVM-compatible networks. Each node in the EVM executes smart contracts under the same rules, ensuring consistent execution across the network.

Different blockchains have established their own consensus mechanisms:

• NEAR and Cosmos utilize WebAssembly (WASM) based VMs, which support smart contracts written in multiple programming languages.
• Sui uses MoveVMs, which produce smart contracts written in the Move language.
• Solana refers to its own special virtual machine (SVM) that enables parallel transaction processing and allows for a significant volume of linear activity.

Practical Applications of Virtual Machines

As decentralized applications are produced, they are executed against the backdrop of virtual machines:

• In decentralized finance applications like Uniswap (DeFi), your transactions will be processed by smart contracts executed within the EVM.
• NFT you want to mint, the VM executes the code that verifies the ownership of each underlying asset and isolates updates for each sale or transfer.
• Level 2 assets under your influence can have transactions executed by a specialized VM like zkEVM, which means leveraging the benefits of zero-knowledge proofs for smart contracts.

Limitations and Challenges of Virtual Machines

Productivity in Production

VMs add an additional layer between hardware and code; however, they may slow down or consume more resources compared to applications running directly on physical computers.

Development Complexity

Service for VMs (, however, involves installation and updates in cloud and blockchain networks) that require considerable time and expertise in terms of cost. This necessitates the developers in the industry to seek skilled professionals and specialists.

Offer of Acceptance

Smart contracts are usually built for specific VM environments. Smart contracts on Ethereum require adaptations or integrations to work on non-Ethereum blockchains like Solana. This means that if developers want to deploy an application across multiple environments, the time and effort needed for deployment can be significantly increased.

Conclusion

Virtual machines perform the function of computers and blockchain systems in production. They allow for the backgrounding of different operating systems, testing software applications, and utilizing one hardware device for multiple purposes. In blockchain, virtual machines are used to execute smart contracts and integrate decentralized applications. Although there is significant utilization in this category of production, it is important to understand what is happening in DeFi tools and platforms without relying solely on virtual machines.