smlXL

The 10,000 foot view

Where did we start, and where are we going?

What drew us to blockchains is that they enable public computing: software and infrastructure in the public right of way, managed by the public. So much of our life depends on computing, and decentralized computing has shifted paradigms. Notwithstanding the bear market, the events of the last couple of years have only reinforced the urgency; obfuscated and excessively abstracted data has manifested in corruption, censorship, and inflation.

But are blockchains really accessible to the public? While anyone can run an archive node and have all the data, it doesn’t mean they can understand it. You may have a contract’s code, but can you understand what it does and whether it functions as expected by the user or intended by the developer? As efforts to scale and improve blockchain performance progress, these systems will become more complex, making them more opaque without the right tools. This is not a critique; distributed systems are hard to understand, operate, and use. Engineering, like other aspects of our life, is an inescapable spectrum of tradeoffs. As we explored more about blockchains and built tools in the EVM ecosystem, our mission has become even clearer:

We’re building proprietary techniques to leverage blockchain’s determinism and transparency for rigorous analysis of EVM bytecode and contracts. Combining static and dynamic analysis, symbolic execution, instrumentation, and simulation to provide a complete and rich understanding of accounts, contracts, and their rich relationships and a computing infrastructure to work alongside it.

We take a cue from Google's original ethos. Just as there was immense value in building a computing infrastructure able to understand each website’s content and context, moving past merely indexing sitemaps and keywords, there will be immense value in comprehensively understanding blockchains.

Our simulation-based approach differs from other players in the space who have defaulted to indexing logs and events and relying on manual curation as, Similar to how now obsolete search engines indexed sitemaps, tags, and human-curated taxonomies and directories alone. Our simulation-based approach will not only enable new types of blockchain search, routing, and data products but introduce a new paradigm where developers can pick and choose what to offload to off-chain computations, enabling them to ship more complex applications, faster and cheaper. Consider the hybrid approach: a developer builds services that maintain a critical state on-chain and interact seamlessly with other contracts. But they perform related computations that don't require the security of decentralization cheaply in an iEVM simulation.

Computing capabilities and comprehensive semantics unlock endless opportunities, just as Google showed with the web.

Learn more about our approach on our blog

Value no. 1

Driven by values

Our goal is to make public computers more transparent, useful, and accessible. Our approach relies on us understanding public computers and software as a blackbox. Every innovation we introduce will stem from a deep understanding of the ecosystem we operate in. We strive to add value and earn the trust of those who rely on our services. In this rapidly evolving domain, we anticipate potential hurdles and changes and constantly design solutions to stay ahead.

Value no. 2

Autonomous and aligned

At our core, we trust in your ability to steer your own ship. This kind of freedom, while empowering, can sometimes lead to different directions or unexpected crossroads with others. That's natural. When it happens, we view it as a chance to regroup, recalibrate, and refine our collective approach. However, once we align as a team, it's all hands on deck. We operate cohesively, with everyone confidently managing their roles. We value both the self-drive and the courage to voice differences. So, take the lead, share your perspective, and strive for alignment.

Value no. 3

Stay unblocked and course correct fast

Our company's most precious resources are our time and energy; they're the true cost centers of our operation. Any obstacle that hinders our flow, especially being blocked, is not just an inconvenience—it's an urgent matter. Recognize these roadblocks swiftly, triage and communicate them proactively, and seek resolutions with the same intensity.

We're bound to face challenges and take wrong turns occasionally; our strength will not be never making a mistake but acknowledging these quickly, learning, and then swiftly charting a new course. Value every moment, protect our collective energy and prioritize unblocking pathways to success.

Value no. 4

Endlessly curious and Master of your craft

We are building a complex set of products in an environment that is extremely dynamic, unforgiving, and often adversarial (hacks/exploits, people trying to game the system to get more rewards, etc.) The quality of our work is imperative.

Since we also have to move fast, it’s not always necessary or feasible to be perfect, but we should strive to articulate the path there and make sure we all understand and capture the tradeoffs we made and reason from first principles.
If there is someone in our team who is an expert or knows more, don't hesitate to ask for help and mentorship.
There can be tension between efficiencies from automation and the quality of manual craftsmanship. It is important that we all become masters of our craft and be able to call out what we are not proud of and find the gaps in our work.
Part of mastering a craft is caring about your craft so much that you want to evolve it and pass it forward; we emphasize passing our knowledge and sharing it internally and externally.

Value no. 5

Fast and performant

We make products that are fast and performant and improve with every release.

Excited by what you read?

Join us

Adrien

Engineer

Alanna

Designer

Arthur

ML Engineer

Brage

Engineer

Charis

Engineer

Diego

Engineer

Dor

Founder

Tal

Engineer & Security Researcher

Nathan

Engineer

Markus

Engineer

Micha

Engineer

Mikolaj

Engineer

Shane

Product & Data

Gentian

Designer

Thank you to our investors

sim is the fastest way to build any application on pipelines that rely on on-chain data.

An interactive guide for EVM opcodes, precompiles, and gas costs. Since its inception, emv.codes has established itself as one of the go-to resources for every EVM developer.