Account-bound EVM memory

EIPs
,
1

Withdrew PR to flesh it out a bit more. (https: //github .com/ethereum/EIPs/pull/1666)

Transient storage repo, related: https://github.com/androlo/tstorage

Much of this comes from experimenting with transient storage (EIP: Transient storage opcodes).

There are three types of memory involved here:

  1. EVM-bound memory - protected memory used by the EVM to store things like call-, and returndata. Can be read from contract code.
  2. Account-bound memory - Lasts throughout an entire transaction and can be written to and read from by contract code. Needs special consideration when a revert happens.
  3. VM-bound memory. Can only be accessed from a specific VM. Can be written to and read from by contract code.

Suggestions

  • Add a address->Memory map that lasts throughout an entire transaction.

  • Keep MLOAD/MSTORE/MSTORE8 as is.

  • Add a map, Map<Address, Memory> to the EVM which binds memories to contract addresses.

  • Add instructions TSTORE, TLOAD, TCOPY to work with account-bound memory.

  • Change CALLDATALOAD/CALLDATASIZE/CALLDATACOPY to read from accountMemory[0].

  • Change RETURNDATASIZE/RETURNDATACOPY to read from accountMemory[0].

  • Change call related instructions (CALL, DELEGATECALL, etc.) to write to accountMemory[0].

  • Change RETURN/REVERT instructions to write to accountMemory[0].

Note: Address 0x00 of accountMemory[0] can be used for data size, and 0x20 and beyond for the data itself. Lifetime of calldata and returndata is now related, and works like returndata does now.

New instructions

TLOAD cAddr sAddr

TLOAD reads the data stored at address sAddr in the transient storage of the account with address cAddr .

Example: if the account with address 0x00...01 wants to read from its own transient storage at address 0x20 , in LLL that would be (TSTORE 0x00...01 0x20)

TSTORE sAddr val

Stores the 32 byte value val at address sAddr in the account’s own transient storage.

TCOPY cAddr sAddr mAddr len

Copies len bytes of data from the address sAddr in the transient storage of account cAddr to memory address mAddr .

Notes

The big change is to add a new memory with a different scope, and making other instructions use memory rather then their own special storage locations, instructions, and gas rules. Harmonization + simplification. Also enables reentrancy locks + other things that has to last over an entire transaction.

2

With the 0x00 address for length convention, the call-, and returndata instructions would be changed to:

CALLDATALOAD addr -> TLOAD 0 (addr + 32)

CALLDATACOPY addr mAddr len -> TCOPY 0 (addr + 32) mAddr len

CALLDATASIZE -> TLOAD 0 0

RETURNDATACOPY addr mAddr len -> TCOPY 0 (addr + 32) mAddr len

RETURNDATASIZE -> TLOAD 0 0

3

An alternative would be to just move VM-bound memory out of the VM and make it account bound. It would have its own pros and cons.