The EVM is the engine behind decentralized applications. This guide explains the technical architecture of the Ethereum Virtual Machine, from stack management to gas fees. Learn how Sei’s Parallel EVM optimizes this standard to deliver subsecond finality and massive throughput.
The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is the deterministic, sandboxed runtime that executes smart contracts across EVM-compatible networks. For web3 developers, the EVM is the de facto execution environment for decentralized applications, defining how bytecode runs, how state is read and written, how gas is consumed, and how transactions change the global state. Mastering how the EVM works is essential for writing correct, gas-efficient, and scalable smart contracts — and for shipping responsive dApps with great UX.
Sei builds on this foundation with a parallel EVM designed to remove the core bottleneck of sequential execution. By parallelizing independent transactions and delivering subsecond finality, Sei enables real-time applications that would feel sluggish elsewhere. For builders, this translates directly into higher throughput, lower latency, and more predictable performance for exchange, gaming, social, and onchain market primitives. Combined with institutional-grade infrastructure and a developer-friendly ecosystem, Sei lets you ship dApps that feel fast and resilient from day one. To explore the ecosystem and get started, visit the Sei documentation and developer resources on Sei.io.
This article gives you a developer-focused view of the EVM — how it’s structured, how it executes your code, where gas goes, and how to design contracts that maximize parallel throughput on Sei. You’ll find practical patterns, concrete code examples, and actionable guidance for testing, deploying, and monitoring production-grade dApps.
To understand how the EVM works, you first need to understand what it is fundamentally.
Computer scientists classify the EVM as a Turing-complete distributed state machine. Unlike a standard computer that runs an operating system (like Windows or macOS) on dedicated hardware, the EVM runs on top of the Ethereum protocol.
Its primary job is to update the World State.
This mechanism ensures consensus. If thousands of nodes processed the same transaction and got different results, the network would split (fork). The EVM’s strict rules guarantee that every node lands on the exact same result.
The EVM doesn’t behave like a normal computer. It uses a specific stack-based architecture designed for security and determinism rather than raw speed. It relies on three distinct types of data storage.
The EVM is a Stack-Based Machine. Imagine a stack of plates: you can only add a plate to the top (PUSH) or remove one from the top (POP).
Memory is a temporary place to store data during the execution of a single transaction.
This is the most critical and expensive component.
Developers do not write code that the EVM reads directly. They write in high-level languages like Solidity or Vyper. Here is the lifecycle of an EVM transaction:
Opcodes are the basic instructions the EVM understands. Each one performs a tiny, specific task:
The EVM is Turing-complete, meaning it can technically solve any computational problem given enough time and resources. However, this creates a danger: The Halting Problem.
What if a user writes a contract with an infinite loop? Without a safeguard, every node in the network would get stuck executing that loop forever, freezing the entire blockchain.
When you send a transaction, you set a Gas Limit (the maximum fuel you are willing to use). As the EVM executes your code, it burns gas. If the gas runs out before the code finishes, the EVM hits a hard stop. It throws a “Out of Gas” error and reverts all changes, but — crucially — the miner keeps the fees. This economic barrier makes Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks prohibitively expensive.
Modern EVM transactions use a dynamic fee structure:
The EVM has become the standard for blockchain computation, extending far beyond the Ethereum mainnet.
The frontier of EVM development is the ZK-EVM. These are scaling solutions that use Zero-Knowledge proofs to verify EVM execution off-chain.
Traditional EVM chains face a major bottleneck: sequential execution. Transactions are processed one by one, meaning if User A sends a payment and User B trades an NFT, User B must wait for User A to finish, even if their actions are completely unrelated.
Sei removes this bottleneck with a Parallel EVM. It identifies independent transactions and executes them concurrently, delivering subsecond finality and higher throughput for applications like exchanges and games. This makes Sei the definitive home for high-performance EVM applications.
Sei uses optimistic parallelization. It assumes most transactions won’t conflict (e.g., two people interacting with different smart contracts) and runs them simultaneously. If a conflict is detected — such as two people trying to buy the same specific NFT at the exact same moment — only those specific transactions are re-run sequentially.
To maximize the benefits of Sei’s parallel EVM, developers can use specific design patterns to minimize “state contention” (conflicts):
The Sei ecosystem is designed to feel familiar to EVM developers while unlocking new performance headroom.
You can use standard tooling — Hardhat, Foundry, ethers.js/web3.js, viem, etc. — and connect to Sei RPC endpoints and explorers. Most teams find the port from other EVM chains is straightforward; the key difference is how much more throughput and UX you can unlock when you redesign hotspots for parallel safety.
1. Is the EVM a physical computer?
No. The EVM is a virtual environment (software) that runs on thousands of physical computers (nodes) simultaneously. It simulates a computer to ensure every node executes code exactly the same way.
No. The EVM has become a standard used by many other blockchains, including Polygon, BNB Chain, and Avalanche. Innovations like Sei have further evolved the standard by adding parallel execution.
4. What programming languages can I use with the EVM?
While the EVM itself only understands Bytecode (Opcodes), developers write smart contracts in high-level languages. The most popular is Solidity, followed by Vyper. These are then compiled into the bytecode the EVM can read.
5. What happens if my transaction runs out of Gas?
If your set Gas Limit is too low for the computation required, the EVM will stop executing the transaction and revert all changes (meaning the transaction effectively didn’t happen). However, you will not get your gas fees back; they are kept by the validator to pay for the work done up to the point of failure.
To deepen your understanding of Sei’s Parallel EVM, explore these specific guides:
The Ethereum Virtual Machine is more than just a runtime environment; it is the foundation of the decentralized internet. By balancing isolation, determinism, and economic security via Gas, the EVM allows strangers worldwide to trust code rather than middlemen.
The standard continues to evolve. While traditional implementations prioritized sequential safety, newer iterations like Sei’s Parallel EVM are unlocking real-time performance by processing independent transactions concurrently. Whether through Layer 2 scaling, ZK-EVMs, or parallel execution, the EVM architecture remains the definitive platform for global, decentralized computation.
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