Mastering Ethereum, 2nd Edition

Chapter 8. Smart Contracts and Vyper

Vyper is a well-established contract-oriented programming language for the EVM that strives to provide superior auditability by making it easier for developers to produce intelligible code. In fact, one of the principles of Vyper is to make it virtually impossible for developers to write misleading code.

In this chapter, we will look at common problems with smart contracts, introduce the Vyper contract programming language, and compare it to Solidity, demonstrating the differences.

Vulnerabilities and Vyper

In 2023 alone, almost $2 billion were stolen because of smart contract vulnerabilities in the Ethereum ecosystem. Vulnerabilities are introduced into smart contracts via code. It can be strongly argued that these and other vulnerabilities are not introduced intentionally, but regardless, undesirable smart contract code evidently results in the unexpected loss of funds for Ethereum users, and this is not ideal. Vyper is designed to make it easier to write secure code or, equally, to make it more difficult to accidentally write misleading or vulnerable code.

Comparison to Solidity

One of the ways in which Vyper tries to make unsafe code harder to write is by deliberately omitting some of Solidity’s features. This design choice reflects Vyper’s roots in security-first principles and its inspiration from Python’s clarity and simplicity. It is important for those who are considering developing smart contracts in Vyper to understand what features ...