What is the Ethereum virtual machine?

Benjamin
Benjamin
Sep 1, 2018 · 3 min read

With Ethereum, the application does not require an entity to store and control its data. To achieve this goal, Ethereum borrowed from Bitcoin’s protocol and its blockchain design, but adjusted it to support applications that exceeded money.

However, Ethereum aims to abstract out the design of bitcoin so that developers can create applications or protocols with extra steps, new ownership rules, alternative transaction formats or different transfer state modes.

The goal of Ethereum’s “Turing Complete” programming language is to allow developers to write more programs where blockchain transactions can manage and automate specific results.

With Ethereum, each time you use a program, it is processed by a network of thousands of computers.

Contracts written in a smart contract-specific programming language are compiled into “bytecode”, a function called “Ethernet Virtual Machine” (EVM) that can be read and executed.

All nodes use this EVM to execute this contract.

Keep in mind that in addition to tracking the current “state”, each node in the network contains a copy of the network’s transactions and smart contract history. Every time a user performs some action, all nodes on the network need to agree to this change.

This flexibility may be a major innovation in Ethereum, as described in the “How the Ethereum Smart Contracts Work” guide.

Ethereum blockchain

The structure of the Ethereum blockchain is very similar to Bitcoin because it is a shared record of the entire transaction history. Each node on the network stores a copy of this history.

The biggest difference with Ethereum is that in addition to all Ether transactions, its nodes store the latest status of each smart contract. (This is much more complicated than the description, but the text below can help you wet your feet.)

For each Ethereum application, the network needs to track the “status” or current information of all of these applications, including each user’s balance, all smart contract codes, and the storage location of all applications.

Bitcoin uses unspent transaction output to track who has bitcoin.

Although it sounds more complicated, the idea is quite simple. Each time a Bitcoin transaction is made, the network “destroys” the total amount as if it were a banknote, and sends it back to Bitcoin in a way that makes the data similar to physical coins or changes.

For future transactions, the Bitcoin network must add all your changes, and these changes are classified as “expenses” or “not spent.”

On the other hand, Ethereum uses accounts.

Like bank account funds, Ethereum tokens appear in the wallet and can be ported (say) to another account. Money is always somewhere, but there is nothing you call a continuing relationship.

Developers can write smart contracts in high-level languages, such as Solidity and Serpent, which are easier for humans to read and write.

As explained in our guide “How Ethereum Mining Works”, miners are people who prevent bad behavior — such as ensuring that no one spends more than once and rejects smart contracts that are not paid.

There are thousands of Ethereum nodes, each of which is compiling and executing the same code.

However, you may be wondering if it is much more expensive than ordinary calculations? Yes. This is why the network may only be used for a specific use case.

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Bitconch

A new protocol for smart contract and DApp

Benjamin

Written by

Benjamin

Blockchain industry practitioner.

Bitconch

Bitconch

A new protocol for smart contract and DApp

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