Rustc: How I Learned to Respect the Compiler
summary
Solana processes ~300–350 million transactions daily with global consensus under 300 ms and tiny fees, and performance pain points come from LLVM BPF generating eight loads and stores for an 8‑byte copy. The fix uses libcalls via compiler-builtins overrides and targeted LLVM PRs to enable unaligned read codegen instead of forking the toolchain, yielding platform-optimal bytecode. The toolchain also compiles MIR to R1CS with a custom rustc driver to produce Groth16 proofs via zark (zark.gg), enabling one-time KYC proofs without leaking personal data.
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