Understanding Arm Virtual Machine in Qtum
Qtum (QTUM) is a decentralized platform that enables users to run applications on its blockchain network without requiring centralized servers or administrators to oversee them. As one of the many platforms that support decentralized applications (DApps), Qtum uses smart contracts to enable business and customer-oriented applications to operate without intermediaries. To run these applications, Qtum employs its arm virtual machine environment.
A virtual machine is a software program that simulates an operating system within another physical machine that runs on actual hardware. These virtual machines are used in the IT industry to save physical space, time, and management costs by running several operating systems on a single computer server. They are also critical for risk management because if one of the virtual operating systems encounters problems and stops working, others can continue their independent operation without being affected.
Since blockchain-based DApp platforms like Qtum have networks of numerous independent nodes, they have to rely on virtual machines for all their distributed computing requirements. These distributed network members contribute their computational power to an abstract virtual computer that runs the decentralized apps.
The Qtum’s arm
The “arm” part of Qtum’s arm virtual machine refers to its computer architecture, which is how it receives and processes instructions. Qtum initially ran on the x86 architecture and later transitioned to the arm version. Arm and x86 belong to two families of instruction set architectures: reduced instruction set computer (RISC) and complex instruction set computer (CISC), respectively.
Compared to CISC, RISC architectures (to which the arm virtual machine belongs) require a larger number of individually simpler instructions to run an application. This results in increased computational efficiency at the cost of the increased complexity of writing programs.
Overall, the arm virtual machine is a crucial component of the Qtum platform, enabling the execution of DApps without the need for centralized intermediaries and ensuring the security and reliability of the network.