Understanding the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) Architecture and Sei’s Parallel Approach

Alvin Lang
Dec 15, 2025 22:40

Explore the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) architecture and Sei’s innovative parallel execution approach, enhancing decentralized applications with subsecond finality and massive throughput.

The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) serves as the backbone for decentralized applications, providing a deterministic and sandboxed environment for executing smart contracts across EVM-compatible networks. It is essential for web3 developers, as it defines how bytecode runs, state is managed, and gas is consumed. Mastering the EVM is crucial for creating efficient and scalable smart contracts, according to Sei’s blog.

Understanding the EVM’s Core Functionality

At its core, the EVM is a Turing-complete distributed state machine that operates on the Ethereum protocol rather than dedicated hardware. It systematically updates the blockchain’s state, ensuring consensus across thousands of nodes globally. This architecture prevents forks by guaranteeing identical transaction outcomes across all nodes.

The Architecture of the EVM

The EVM employs a stack-based architecture for security and determinism, comprising three data storage types: stack, memory, and storage. The stack functions as the workspace for immediate instructions, memory serves as temporary storage during transactions, and storage is used for permanent data retention on the blockchain.

Execution and Gas Management

Developers write contracts in high-level languages like Solidity, which are compiled into bytecode for the EVM. Execution involves breaking down bytecode into opcodes. Each opcode has a gas cost, creating an economic barrier against denial-of-service attacks. The EVM uses a dynamic fee structure, including a base fee and a priority fee for transaction processing.

Sei’s Parallel EVM Innovation

Sei addresses the EVM’s sequential execution bottleneck with a parallel EVM, allowing concurrent transaction processing for higher throughput and subsecond finality. This approach is particularly beneficial for applications requiring real-time performance, such as exchanges and games. Developers can optimize for parallel execution by minimizing state contention through specific design patterns.

Expanding Beyond Ethereum

The EVM standard extends beyond Ethereum to other blockchains like Polygon and Avalanche. Innovations such as Sei’s parallel execution and ZK-EVMs further enhance the EVM’s capabilities, offering scalability and improved performance.

Sei’s ecosystem supports standard EVM development tools and provides extensive documentation and resources for developers looking to leverage its parallel execution capabilities.

The EVM remains a foundational element of blockchain technology, continuously evolving to meet the demands of decentralized computation. Sei’s parallel EVM exemplifies this evolution, unlocking new performance horizons while maintaining the integrity and security of decentralized networks.

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