EIP-8219: Checked Arithmetic Opcodes

EIPs
1

Summary (ELI5):
This EIP introduces four new opcodes: SAFEADD, SAFESUB, SAFEMUL, and SAFEDIV that perform unsigned 256-bit arithmetic with built-in overflow, underflow, and division-by-zero checking. This makes smart contracts easier to read and write and cheaper to execute.

Champion: Hubert Ritzdorf, ritzdorf (Hubert Ritzdorf) · GitHub

Detailed Justification:

  • Currently, compilers add checked arithmetic, which creates significant overhead
  • Introducing checked arithmetic opcodes would reduce the actual gas cost of a checked addition by 88% and 93% for vyper and solidity respectively
  • This reduces execution cost and code size
  • Previous approaches didn’t offer such great gas cost reductions

Stakeholder Impact:

Positive:

  • Easier to implement EVM compilers
  • More readable smart contracts
  • Cheaper smart contract execution
  • Smaller smart contract size

Negative:

  • Four additional opcodes taken

Technical Readiness:

This proposal is ready. See Full EIP linked below. The required modifications in execution clients are relatively minor.

Security & Open Questions:

We welcome a discussion about the gas costs for the new opcodes.

Full EIP:

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