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Update Stylus: terminology & benefits #1314

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8 changes: 4 additions & 4 deletions arbitrum-docs/stylus/stylus-gentle-introduction.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -21,14 +21,14 @@ This introduction is for developers who want to build on Arbitrum using popular
- Rich language support already exists for Rust: you can use the Stylus SDK and CLI tool to **start building today.**
- Stylus smart contracts benefit from **Arbitrum's EVM equivalence** thanks to a second, coequal WASM virtual machine.
- Solidity contracts and Stylus contracts are fully interoperable. In Solidity, you can call a Rust program and vice versa.
- Stylus contracts are over **an order of magnitude faster with significantly lower gas fees** due to the superior efficiency of WASM programs.
- Stylus contracts' transactions require significantly lower gas fees thanks to the superior efficiency of WASM programs.
- **Memory can be 100-500x cheaper** when using Stylus, unlocking new use cases now that consuming RAM is viable on the blockchain.

### What's Stylus?

Stylus is an upgrade to Arbitrum Nitro, the tech stack powering Arbitrum One, Arbitrum Nova, and Arbitrum Orbit chains. This upgrade adds a second, coequal virtual machine to the EVM, where EVM contracts continue to behave exactly as they would in Ethereum. We call this paradigm **EVM\+** since **everything is entirely additive.**

![Stylus gives you EVM+](./assets/stylus-gives-you-evm-plus.png)
![Stylus gives you MultiVM](./assets/stylus-gives-you-evm-plus.png)

This second virtual machine executes WebAssembly (WASM) rather than EVM bytecode. WASM is a modern binary format popularized by its use in major web standards, browsers, and companies to speed up computation. Built to be fast, portable, and human-readable, WASM also has sandboxed execution environments for security and simplicity. Working with WASM is nothing new for Arbitrum chains. Ever since the [Nitro upgrade](https://medium.com/offchainlabs/arbitrum-nitro-one-small-step-for-l2-one-giant-leap-for-ethereum-bc9108047450), WASM has been a fundamental component of Arbitrum's fully functioning fraud proofs.

Expand All @@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ Stylus innovates on many levels, with the key ones described here:

There are estimated to be roughly 20k Solidity developers, compared to 3 million Rust developers or 12 million C developers [[1](https://www.slashdata.co/blog/state-of-the-developer-nation-23rd-edition-the-fall-of-web-frameworks-coding-languages-blockchain-and-more)]. Developers are now free to use their preferred programming language, all interoperable on any Arbitrum chain with Stylus. Scaling to the next billion users requires onboarding the next million developers.

#### EVM+
#### MultiVM

Stylus brings the best of both worlds. Developers still get all of the benefits of the EVM, including the ecosystem and liquidity, while getting efficiency improvements and access to existing libraries in Rust, C, and C++. All without changing anything about how the EVM works. EVM equivalence is no longer the ceiling, it's the floor.

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ Many possibilities are enabled because of Stylus, to name a few:

The most exciting part about Stylus is all of the novel use cases that haven't even been dreamt of in the EVM. This is because none of this was possible, until today.

While many developers will be drawn to the net new use cases, rebuilding existing applications in Stylus will also open the door to innovation. dApps have never been faster, cheaper, or safer.
While many developers will be drawn to the net new use cases, rebuilding existing applications in Stylus will also open the door to innovation. apps have never been cheaper, or safer.

If you're a developer interested in Stylus, visit the [quickstart](https://docs.arbitrum.io/stylus/stylus-quickstart), join the [Discord channel](https://discord.com/invite/arbitrum), and start building!

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