Virtual Machine

The current Carbon validator includes a live Phantasma VM implementation. It executes:

• standalone custom contracts deployed with Runtime.DeployContract(...)

• token-backed contracts created with Nexus.CreateToken(...) or attached later with Nexus.AttachTokenContract(...)

• trigger code such as onMint, onBurn, onSend, onReceive, onSeries, onAttach, and onUpgrade

• transaction scripts and read-only scripts executed through the VM entry context

This section documents the current validator behavior. It is meant to help developers understand what the VM can do today, how it is wired into Carbon, and which interop surfaces are available right now.

What To Read First

• architecture.md

  • how execution contexts, registers, stack, interop, gas, and triggers fit together

• types.md

  • the VM value model used by scripts, ABIs, and interop calls

• opcodes.md

  • the core instruction set and base opcode gas costs

• interop.md

  • the native bridge from VM code into token, NFT, storage, and contract lifecycle operations

Practical Scope

For most contract authors, the most important parts are:

• custom contract lifecycle through Runtime.DeployContract(...) and Runtime.UpgradeContract(...)

• token-backed lifecycle through Nexus.CreateToken(...), Nexus.AttachTokenContract(...), and Runtime.UpgradeContract(...)

• token and NFT interops such as Runtime.MintTokens, Runtime.MintToken, Runtime.TransferTokens, Runtime.TransferToken, Runtime.ReadToken, and Nexus.CreateTokenSeries

• storage helpers Data.*, Map.*, and List.*

If you are deploying contracts rather than writing raw scripts, the most developer-friendly entry points are still the higher-level tools:

• pha-deploy

• Token Deployment Frontend