Revamping the Vyper Compiler: What You Need to Know

What’s Happening with Vyper?

On January 8th, the Ethereum Foundation dropped a bombshell announcing that developers are cooking up a new version of the Vyper compiler. Why? Apparently, the current version has “multiple serious bugs” that could rain on everyone’s parade. Thankfully, the Vyperlang team clarified that existing smart contracts are still safe from this digital mayhem. Phew!

A Peek into Vyper’s DNA

Vyper is not your average programming language; it was birthed by Ethereum’s very own Vitalik Buterin, with a mission to be as readable as a children’s bedtime story. Sure, it sacrifices some of the flashy benefits found in Solidity, Ethereum’s star player, but that’s the price you pay for simplicity.

From Sidekick to Independent

Initially, Vyper was just a sidekick in the Ethereum ecosystem but officially branched out into its own entity after a 2019 audit by Consensys Diligence. This report had more red flags than a bullfight, tallying up 31 issues with the Vyper compiler that turned some heads.

A Candid Admission from Developers

In a refreshingly candid blog post, EF developers expressed their struggle with Vyper’s maintainers. They shared, “After a few months of work, we were skeptical that the python codebase was likely to deliver on the idea that Vyper promised.” Basically, they felt the codebase was like a sinking ship, and the crew was more into rearranging deck chairs than bailing out water.

Rust to the Rescue?

Before the audit even dropped, the EF team began constructing a shiny new compiler using Rust. Why the jump? Well, Rust is like the Swiss Army knife of programming — versatile and ready to serve the new EWASM virtual machine, which will soon replace the EVM with Ethereum 2.0. It’s like trading in your old flip phone for the newest smartphone. Out with the old, in with the efficient!

A Silver Lining from the Vyper Team

Despite the doom and gloom surrounding bugs, Vyper maintainers have a glass-half-full attitude. They tweeted that a separate audit of the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract came back clean, thanks to some behind-the-scenes magic from Runtime Verification. They even boasted about fixing over 75% of the bugs highlighted in the audit, which is like mowing your lawn and finding most of the weeds are already gone!

The Future of Vyper: A Joint Adventure

The road ahead is filled with collaborative challenges but also promise. Both the Rust and Python versions of Vyper are on the development track, and the goal is a single, unified Vyper language. It sounds ambitious, but with teamwork makes the dream work, right?