Introducing the World Computer

You’ve now created a wallet and sent and received ether. So far, we’ve treated Ethereum as a cryptocurrency. But Ethereum is much, much more. In fact, the cryptocurrency function is subservient to Ethereum’s function as a decentralized world computer. Ether is meant to be used to pay for running smart contracts, which are computer programs that run on an emulated computer called the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

The EVM is a global singleton, meaning that it operates as if it were a global, single-instance computer, running everywhere. Each node on the Ethereum network runs a local copy of the EVM to validate contract execution, while the Ethereum blockchain records the changing state of this world computer as it processes transactions and smart contracts. We’ll discuss this in much greater detail in [evm_chapter].