Original title: "In-depth interpretation of the ecological empire of EVM"

Original Author: GravityX Capital

Original compilation: Captain Hiro, the way of DeFi

The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is the de-facto standard among blockchain developers, and it has a huge community behind it. This has led to other EVM-compatible blockchains exploring the system, and non-EVM-compatible blockchains building an EVM-compatible layer on top of it.

Guys, let's take a deeper look at the compatibility of the Ethereum Virtual Machine!

After a launch with limited success, so-called “Ethereum Killers” are building solutions on-chain to further support the Ethereum Virtual Machine. For example, Polkadot's Moonbeam, NEAR Protocol's Aurora, Cosmo's Evmos, and Solana's Neon.

What are EVMs?

The Ethereum Virtual Machine is responsible for defining the rules for computing new valid states from block to block. The Ethereum Virtual Machine is a powerful sandboxed virtual stack within each Ethereum node that is responsible for contract bytecode execution.

Currently, Ethereum developers are leading the development activity for Web3, with approximately 4,000+ monthly active developers. Ethereum continues to have the largest ecosystem of tools, applications, and protocols, which is 2.8 times larger than the next largest ecosystem. One out of every five new Web3 developers is building on Ethereum.

Solidity and the Ethereum Virtual Machine are the de facto standards for blockchains.

Ethereum was the first blockchain to allow on-chain smart contract execution, and for this they released Solidity, a coding language compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Almost all successful decentralized applications (dApps) use Solidity and the Ethereum Virtual Machine to execute smart contracts.

As Ethereum started to gain more usage and attention, a lot of different tools appeared on the network to ease and speed up the execution and deployment of smart contracts on Ethereum (and the Ethereum Virtual Machine). You probably know protocols like Truffle, Ganache, Infura, OpenZeppelin, Hardhat, etc.

EVM compatible chain

EVM compatible chain

Other permissionless blockchains have reacted quickly to the current problems on Ethereum by offering lower gas fees and faster transactions. But instead of developing new ways to implement smart contracts, the developers of these blockchains simply copied parts of the Ethereum network.

What do these Ethereum altchains offer?

For consumers, EVM-compatible chains offer cheaper gas prices, faster transactions and the same address format as Ethereum, which provides a user-friendly environment. It accelerates traffic and ecosystem expansion as users of Ethereum can easily transition to other chains.

For developers, a chain compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine establishes a code execution environment comparable to the Ethereum Virtual Machine. This means that Ethereum developers can quickly and easily deploy the protocol to other competing chains without having to create code from scratch.

Currently, a huge ecosystem has developed around EVM-compatible chains such as Avalance, Binance Smart Chain, Fantom, and second-layer solutions such as Arbitrum and Optimism. You can see the comparison of smart contract platforms based on the Ethereum virtual machine from the figure below:

Non-EVM compatible chain

Various blockchains stepped in to solve the scalability problem of Ethereum, which does not support the Ethereum Virtual Machine and uses a different virtual machine standard, such as CosmWasm. Popular examples of these blockchains are Solana, Cosmos, Near Protocol, and Polkadot.

Non-EVM blockchains enable EVM

Initially, those blockchains released that were not compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine had superior designs, such as popular programming languages ​​and speed. After including compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, these blockchains abandoned their original goal of developing an alternative technology stack to Ethereum.

A project to build EVM compatibility on non-EVM chains

• Aurora on NEAR Protocol

• Moonbeam on Polkadot

• Evmos on Cosmos

• Neons on Solana

• Oasis Emerald Paratime on Oasis Swao

• Algorand's announced plans

Aurora is a technology that enables Ethereum contracts to be executed in a higher performance environment, the NEAR blockchain, a contemporary layer-1 blockchain that is fast (2-3 seconds to complete a transaction) , strong scalability, and environment-friendly.

Polkadot and Cosmos are multi-chain blockchains that support Moonbeam and Evmos respectively. They chose not to implement the Ethereum VM alongside the main VM, but instead provide a subchain exclusively for it.

Moonbeam is a platform that supports Ethereum Virtual Machine compatibility and deploys decentralized applications on Polkadot. As projects continue to be deployed to Moonbeam, it has become key to bringing utility and interoperability to the network.

Evmos on Cosmos is an application-agnostic chain that will interoperate with the Ethereum mainnet, Ethereum Virtual Machine Compatible Environment, and other BFT (Byzantine Fault Tolerant) chains through IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication), enabling users and developers to People are able to easily transfer value between chains.

Neon is a virtual machine that allows developers to use Solana's scalability, liquidity, and Ethereum tools. This means dapp developers get lower gas fees, faster transactions, parallel transaction processing, high throughput, and access to the Solana marketplace.

Emerald Paratime on the Oasis Network aims to reduce transaction costs by increasing throughput to over 1000 transactions per second. The Ethereum Virtual Machine supports decentralized applications including DeFi (Decentralized Finance), NFT, Metaverse, and cryptocurrency game projects. Additionally, it enables cross-chain interoperability.

Algorand recently announced $20 million in funding to accelerate the growth of its ecosystem. Foundation officials said the $10 million grant will go to developers who can provide EVM compatibility solutions.

rollup with EVM compatibility

zkEVM is a virtual machine that can execute smart contracts in a manner compatible with zero-knowledge proof computations.

Hermez zkEVM is an optimized zkEVM compatible technology that provides full OPCODE compatibility with the security of Ethereum.

Scroll ZK rollup is a rollup compatible with the Ethereum virtual machine. It has a strong network, a powerful outsourcing mechanism, and encourages users (rollers) to generate zero-knowledge proofs. It is also compatible with all existing Ethereum infrastructures and requires no any modification.

The environment of the Ethereum Virtual Machine can be used as an entry point for assets to enter these underlying chains from the Ethereum Virtual Machine chain. Users will choose the bridge that is convenient and safe for them. The graphic below depicts the interaction of the Cosmos Hub and Evmos with the Ethereum Virtual Machine chain.

The Ethereum Virtual Machine is the de facto standard for smart contract execution. It facilitates the transfer of liquidity from the Ethereum blockchain to these faster, cheaper and scalable EVM solutions. Additionally, as the developer community around the Ethereum Virtual Machine continues to grow, it will solve most of the problems of the Ethereum main chain.