What is x86 Virtual Machine (Qtum)?

The x86 Virtual Machine (VM), developed by the Qtum team, can run smart contracts written in a variety of languages. This VM is quite similar to the current Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), although it has a few noticeable improvements. These improvements include:

• The Qtum VM can read contracts in any programming language that supports a JIT compiler, including C++, Java, Python, and other popular languages widely used in application development (EVM only reads Solidity language).
• The Qtum has implemented two new pricing models – fixed-fee per transaction and charge per transaction, in addition to supporting the standard gas model (when users pay for each completed operation in a smart contract) on Ethereum.
• The Qtum VM supports x86 registers and memory operations through a unified 16-bit instruction encoding approach that drastically reduces gas costs in common scenarios. This allows developers to do more operations per transaction on the Qtum blockchain, increasing its throughput.

What Is Qtum?

Qtum is an open-source blockchain project that intends to combine Bitcoin's stability with Ethereum's flexibility. It was created in 2016 by the Singapore-based Qtum Foundation, under the leadership of Patrick Dai, Neil Mahi, and Jordan Earls. Its mainnet, on the other hand, was launched in 2017.

Qtum protocol is a hybrid of Bitcoin Core, Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus, and the EVM. It enables the execution of smart contracts using a PoS consensus mechanism. This helps save electricity and decreases the risk of centralization compared to Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus.

Moreover, Qtum uses a Decentralized Governance Protocol (DGP) to ensure that the blockchain continues to function even if a few nodes fail. DGP enables the modification of certain blockchain characteristics such as block size, gas price, and block interval without the requirement for a hard fork. It uses an unspent transaction output (UTXO) model for faster transaction processing, but it can also handle smart contracts in the same way as Ethereum does.

The DGP in Qtum gives node operators particular choice privileges when it comes to updates like hard forks. Before modifications are applied to the blockchain, node operators must establish a consensus. This keeps the network from being destabilized by bugs or hacks, and it gives users explicit standards for keeping track of changes.

Although there are other crypto projects seeking to achieve the same aims as Qtum, it is worth mentioning that Bitcoin's UTXO mechanism is what distinguishes it from them. Besides, Qtum is a platform that aims to create smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps) that could be deployed in enterprise settings.