Radar · Solidity · Archive · Week 19 · May 5 – 11, 2025

Default EVM version changed to Prague

Worth knowingcompiler

What changed: The compiler now defaults to the Prague EVM version instead of Cancun.
Production impact: The source does not say.
Try it: Compile a contract with pragma solidity ^0.8.30; and inspect the generated bytecode to verify the target EVM version.
Source: github.com/argotorg/solidity/releases/tag/v0.8.30

Understand it, then run it

Solidity 0.8.30 changed the compiler’s default EVM version from Cancun to Prague. When you write a contract without specifying an EVM version, the compiler will now target Prague. Prague is the newest EVM release, adding a few new opcodes and changes to existing ones. This change only affects how the compiler emits bytecode; the Solidity language itself stays the same.

Run it now

Todaysolidity

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.37;

// The compiler defaults to the Prague EVM version in 0.8.37.
// This contract simply stores a value to demonstrate that the
// contract compiles and runs under the default EVM.
contract Main {
    uint256 public value;

    constructor(uint256 _value) {
        value = _value;
    }
}

Tests

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.37;

import "./main.sol";

contract MainTest {
    Main main;

    constructor() {
        main = new Main(42);
    }

    function test_valueIsSet() public {
        require(main.value() == 42, "value should be 42");
    }
}

The test report when we ran it on Solidity 0.8.37 (solc)

1 of 1 tests passed.

test_valueIsSet28,459 gas

MainTest: 640 bytes of bytecode, deployed for 228,254 gas

solc 0.8.37 · prague

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Written by gpt-oss-20b from the linked source · claims checked against the sources · archive, not individually reviewed