Hacking the Filecoin Ethereum Virtual Machine (FEVM)

Hack FEVM introduced the Ethereum-compatible layer of the Filecoin Virtual Machine to the ETH ecosystem, welcoming over 400 hackers and 117 project submissions. Ethereum developers got to deploy EVM out-of-the-box to FVM, giving their smart contracts the ability to interact directly with placeholder storage deals on the test network during the hackathon to simulate the workflow, and eventually with deals on the Filecoin storage network.

Throughout the hackathon, 11 talks introduced the Filecoin Virtual Machine and a variety of resources for developers. These included tutorials with familiar EVM developer tools, introduction to FEVM-specific tools, and a brainstorm on FEVM use cases.

“The core of all of the technology… enables all of you amazing builders to write your own amazing smart contracts or new layers of programmability and that’s really what we’re most excited for,” said Molly Mackinlay, Product and Engineering Lead at Protocol Labs. “This has not been available in Filecoin so there’s lots of latent demand for people to be able to access and bring their own programs into Filecoin.”

“It was a very promising start that hints at the wide-reaching impact FVM can bring to Web3 builders,” said Sarah Thiam, FVM Developer Advocate at Protocol Labs. “There was a lot of excitement, curiosity, and interest from hackers to start building! Even with FEVM being incrementally delivered, with tooling being shipped during the hack and documentation in various places, devs hacked away and a majority submitted well-developed projects.”

One of the focuses is making sure the FVM deployment is ready to use directly out of the box. This includes eliminating any lurking bugs that could create frustrating barriers. Hack FEVM helped introduce major value through testing feedback, uncovering six bug reports that would have otherwise been missed.

According to Thiam, the “Ethereum JSON-RPC API is now fully feature complete so you have a lot of new capabilities fresh out of the oven for you to use.” It’s compatible with all of your favorite Ethereum developer tools.

In addition, more team projects joined the FVM Foundry Early Builders Program, which enables experienced teams to work with peers and with the core FVM team, to explore and build valuable use cases, infrastructure, tooling, and docs.

As the FVM launch date quickly approaches, more opportunities have been revealed, including Space Warp. Space Warp is a jam-packed program leading up to the launch of Filecoin’s Virtual Machine on mainnet in Feb 2023. The program includes grants, a hackathon, a builders’ leaderboard, and more totalling over $400k in FIL tokens. Registration is open now!

To get started, you can learn more about the Filecoin Virtual Machine, check out the developer resources, apply to join the FVM Foundry, and stay up-to-date on future opportunities by following us on Twitter.