What’s Ethereum Virtual Machine?
Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is a decentralised execution environment that enables smart contracts to be executed on the Ethereum network. It’s a secure, distributed transaction processing system that uses blockchain technology. Here we’ll explore in detail what EVM is and how it works.
Understanding how the Ethereum Virtual Machine works
The EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) is a software application that functions as a virtual machine, enabling smart contracts to be executed on the Ethereum network. The virtual machine is designed to run code on any underlying machine, without having to worry about the specific environment of the host machine. This feature is essential to guarantee the portability and security of smart contracts.
EVM uses a programming language called Solidity to write smart contracts. Solidity is an object-oriented language, similar to JavaScript, that allows you to define data structures, functions and events to create smart contracts. The Solidity language allows smart contracts to be deployed on the Ethereum network transparently, enabling developers to create decentralised applications on the Ethereum blockchain.
Smart contracts are executed on the Ethereum network, which is a decentralised, public and distributed blockchain. This means that each smart contract is verified and executed by a large number of network nodes, and the results are stored on the Ethereum blockchain. This ensures that smart contracts are immutable, resistant to censorship and fraud, and operate reliably and transparently.
When a smart contract is submitted to EVM, it is first compiled into bytecode, a low-level language that EVM understands. EVM then executes this bytecode according to the predefined rules of the Ethereum protocol. EVM is able to process transactions in a distributed manner, making it resistant to censorship and corruption.
Advantages of using the Ethereum Virtual Machine
The Ethereum Virtual Machine offers several advantages over traditional transaction processing systems. Firstly, EVM is decentralised, which means that it is not controlled by a single entity. Unlike centralised transaction processing systems, which are often controlled by companies or governments, EVM is managed by a decentralised community of nodes. This decentralisation makes EVM resistant to censorship and corruption, as there is no single point of failure.
Furthermore, EVM uses blockchain technology, which guarantees the immutability of data. The blockchain is a distributed database that stores all transactions carried out on the Ethereum network. Each node in the Ethereum community has a copy of the blockchain, which makes the data stored on the blockchain transparent and accessible to all network users. This transparency guarantees the integrity of transactions, as each transaction must be validated by the nodes of the Ethereum community before being added to the blockchain. Once a transaction has been added to the blockchain, it cannot be modified, which ensures that the data stored on the blockchain is immutable.
The limits of Ethereum Virtual Machine
The first major limit of the Ethereum Virtual Machine relates to transaction processing speed. The computing power of the nodes on the Ethereum network is limited, which can lead to slow transaction processing. Nodes are computers that store and verify transactions on the Ethereum network. The more transactions there are to process, the more calculations the nodes have to make, which can slow down the processing.
This can cause problems for Ethereum users, as transactions can take longer to process than on traditional transaction processing systems. Processing times can vary depending on network congestion, transaction fees and the complexity of smart contracts. During periods of high network activity, processing times can become particularly long.
The second limitation of the Ethereum Virtual Machine relates to the cost of executing smart contracts. This is because executing smart contracts on the Ethereum network has a cost, which is usually expressed as a gas fee. Gas is a unit of measurement used to quantify the amount of computation required to execute a transaction or smart contract.
When the Ethereum network is congested, gas fees can increase significantly, which can make it costly for users to use certain decentralised applications. It can also make the development of new decentralised applications more difficult, as developers have to factor in the high costs associated with executing smart contracts.
In conclusion, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is a decentralised transaction processing platform that uses blockchain technology to guarantee data integrity and enable the execution of smart contracts. EVM offers several advantages over traditional transaction processing systems, including resistance to censorship and corruption, data immutability and the creation of decentralised applications.
Despite its limitations, such as transaction processing speed limited by the computing power of network nodes and the high cost of executing smart contracts during times of network congestion, EVM continues to be one of the most popular networks for decentralised application developers and cryptocurrency investors.
