EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine)

The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is the software environment that runs smart contracts on Ethereum. Every Ethereum node runs the EVM, executes the same contract code with the same inputs and arrives at the same result, which is how the network agrees on the state of every account and contract.

Smart contracts are usually written in a programming language called Solidity and compiled into EVM bytecode. Each operation costs a fixed amount of gas, which prevents infinite loops and makes users pay for the computing they use.

The EVM has become an industry standard. "EVM-compatible" chains, such as BNB Chain, Polygon, Avalanche's C-Chain and many layer-2 rollups including Arbitrum and Base, can run the same contracts and work with the same wallets, such as MetaMask. That is why one 0x address works on all of them. Non-EVM chains, such as Solana, Bitcoin and Cardano, use different virtual machines and address formats.