Inside Fuel — September 2022

Ruben Amar -
Welcome to Inside Fuel, our review of the technical developments on the Fuel Network. Take a moment to catch up with all of the latest news.

Updates

Fuelup

What is Fuelup?

Fuelup is the official package manager and multiplexer for Fuel that installs The Fuel Toolchain from the official release channels. It enables you to easily install pre-packaged toolchains, keep them up to date or even create custom toolchains and switch between them.

Binaries are executed through Fuelup as proxies which allow for flexibility in the execution of tools.

It simplifies building and maintaining Sway applications with forc and fuel-core for common platforms.

Versions 0.5.0 - 0.7.1 were released (3 Updates)
  • The forc-wallet plugin is now installable through fuelup;
  • The nightly toolchain is available through fuelup toolchain install nightly;

What is the Nightly toolchain?

Nightly is a toolchain consisting of binaries (forc, fuel-core, forc-wallet) built on a nightly basis. These are built against the master branch of each respective repo.

Note that nightlies are not tested for compatibility unlike the latest toolchain and therefore should be assumed to be unstable most of the time - which means forc may not always work against fuel-core . We recommend using nightly only if you know that there's a change you want but hasn't been released yet. latest should still be the go-to toolchain to use.

Sway Updates

What is Sway?

Sway is a language for writing smart contracts for the Fuel Virtual Machine (FuelVM), a blazing-fast, blockchain-optimized VM designed for the Fuel blockchain. It is heavily inspired by Rust and aims to bring modern language development and performance to the blockchain ecosystem. Start learning the Sway language today with the Sway Book and the FuelVM Bootcamp.

Versions 0.22.0 - 0.24.5 were released (9 Updates)
  • Add of the standard library prelude;
  • Pattern matching on constants, ie. having constants in the pattern position in a match expression or an if let expression is now possible;
  • New timestamp functions have been added to the standard library;
  • Reduction in bytecode size is now possible;
  • A new Sway formatter is now running;

Fuel Core Updates

  • New VM benchmark harness, allowing for gas scheduling;
  • P2P has been incorporated into the Fuel client;
  • P2P transaction gossiping between node mempools;
  • Rewrite of the Ethereum bridge for increased stability;
  • Bridge messages are now included in balance and coin selection APIs;
  • Various safety improvements for the VM;

Fuels-rs (Rust SDK) Updates

Versions 0.22.0 - 0.24.0 were released (3 Updates)
  • The old JSON ABI is now fully deprecated in favor of the new flat JSON ABI;
  • Automatic fee estimation for hand-crafted transactions;
  • A simplified way to connect to a provider with Provider::connect() has been implemented;
  • Full generics support;
  • Support for Option<T> and Result<T, E>;
  • Initial support for InputMessage, the main building block for the upcoming bridge support;
  • New methods() interface and deprecation of the old .build() for contract instantiation;
  • New script crafting interface;
  • Vec<T> support for inputs only, output coming up soon;
  • Logs and events parsing;

Fuels-ts (Typescript SDK) Updates

Versions 0.13.0 - 0.17.0 were released (5 Updates)
  • Improvements on the Option<T> support;
  • Derive hardened paths and support for custom path templates;
  • Vec<T> support for inputs only, output coming up soon;
  • Logs and events parsing;
  • Initial support for InputMessage, the main building block for the upcoming bridge support;
  • Many bug-fixes thanks to the helpful community finding bugs and improvement points;
  • Lots of QoL improvements and bug fixes;

Start Building On Fuel Today

Building on Fuel means breaking free from the constraints of monolithic blockchains that have held us back.

Developer Resources for Building with Fuel

  • A step-by-step guide to building a full-stack dapp on Fuel can be found here.
  • The Fuel Book can be found here. It contains everything you need to know about Fuel, from its modular design to its key features.
  • The Sway Book can be found here.

Fuel Grants Program

What is it?

The Fuel Grants program is a way to support projects building on Fuel. Currently, we are offering generous grants ranging from 10,000 - 150,000 USD to developers, creators, and new or existing projects to come build on the world's fastest modular execution layer. We welcome all builders with a passion for decentralization, web3, and building the future. We envision an autonomous future, where systems are built to power the next generation of human coordination and cooperation.

Take the Fuel Pill 💊 and go beyond the limitations of the EVM by joining all the other grantees on the modular journey. To get started applying for a grant, fill out this form. We’re incredibly excited to launch this program, and see more people building on Fuel!

If you have any additional questions please feel free to reach out to grants@fuel.sh.

Other

In the News

Fuel: The Future is Modular
This week, we take a brief look at Fuel, a modular execution layer. In this article, we dive into its architecture and ecosystem, and comment on our findings. Read more here.
Bybit Blog

According to the Rust In Blockchain monthly review, Fuel is one of the most active Rust-based projects this September, ranked 5th this September 2022, right behind, Aptos, Parity, Solana, and Sui with 283 merged PRs, 190 closed issues, 146 open issues.

Newest Additions To Fuel

Building the fastest modular execution layer would not be possible without its great contributor team, here are the newest additions to the team this month:

Public Appearances

🇩🇪 Berlin Blockchain Week

We had a great panel in partnership with Manta Network at ETHBerlin on how privacy and modularity bring the next billion users to Web 3. Catch the video replay here.

We also partnered with Celestia to host a happy hour for Modularists during EthBerlin.

🇭🇷 Infobip Shift, Split - Croatia

Our Head of Developer Relations Camila Ramos gave a talk entitled Solving scalability: Fuel Labs & Modular Blockchains during Infobip conference in Croatia. You can find the slides here.

⚛ Cosmoverse️, Medellin - Colombia

Cami also took part in a panel around IBC (Inter Blockchain Communication) during Cosmoverse 2022 in Medellin - Colombia.

Podcast Appearances

Our co-founder, John Adler sat down for a Podcast with Logan Jastremski to discuss Modular Blockchains and Fuel. Watch the full interview or read our TLDR here.

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About Us

Fuel is the fastest execution layer for the modular blockchain stack. Powerful and sleek, the technology enables parallel transaction execution, empowering developers with the highest flexible throughput and maximum security required to scale. Developers choose the FuelVM for its superior developer experience and the ability to go beyond the limitations of the EVM.

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