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Starstream

Starstream is a VM concept that uses delimited continuations as its core primitive. The end goal is a language and VM that can be used across any blockchain that chooses to include it.

Unique features of Starstream:

  • Native folding scheme support for both on variable updates & function application (only VM that provides both)
  • UTXO-based (only zkVM in development with this property)
  • Delimited continuations as its core primitive (only blockchain VM that does this)

Basic overview: video and slides

Technical overview: video and slides

Starstream working group on Discord: https://discord.gg/9eZaheySZE

Entry points​

  • make to build everything
    • cargo build to build Rust crates
  • ./starstream to run Starstream CLI
    • Hello world example: ./starstream compile -c grammar/examples/hello_world.star -o target/hello.wasm
      • Run: ./starstream run -m target/hello.wasm
    • Rust example: cargo build -p example_contract
      • Run Rust example: ./starstream run -m target/wasm32-unknown-unknown/debug/example_contract.wasm -e new_nft
      • Other -e entry points: produce
  • ./test to run the VM in test/example configuration
  • starstream_vscode/install_dev to install extension working directory into VSC
    • Reload VSC after running
    • Uninstall with rm ~/.vscode/extensions/starstream-dev

Implementation structure​

  • starstream_compiler: Compiler from Starstream language to WASM
  • starstream_cli: Command-line interface to the compiler
    • Binary name is starstream
  • starstream_sandbox: Exports the compiler and VM for use in the browser sandbox
  • starstream_sys: WASM-side Rust bindings for Starstream VM exports
  • starstream_vm: Host and example/test code
    • Uses wasmi as WASM interpreter
  • starstream_vscode: Visual Studio Code extension for Starstream language support

Examples​

  • example_contract
  • example_contract_permissioned

Note that a single WASM file can contain any combination of coordination scripts, UTXOs, and tokens. This allows them to ship together as a unit. The limitations on what each type of contract can do are enforced dynamically.