Subnet EVM
Avalanche is a network composed of multiple blockchains. Each blockchain is an instance of a Virtual Machine (VM), much like an object in an object-oriented language is an instance of a class. That is, the VM defines the behavior of the blockchain.
Subnet EVM is the Virtual Machine (VM) that defines the Subnet Contract Chains. Subnet EVM is a simplified version of Coreth VM (C-Chain).
This chain implements the Ethereum Virtual Machine and supports Solidity smart contracts as well as most other Ethereum client functionality.
Building
The Subnet EVM runs in a separate process from the main AvalancheGo process and communicates with it over a local gRPC connection.
AvalancheGo Compatibility
[v0.7.0] [email protected] (Protocol Version: 38)
[v0.7.1] [email protected] (Protocol Version: 39)
[v0.7.2] [email protected]/1.13.0-fuji (Protocol Version: 39)
API
The Subnet EVM supports the following API namespaces:
ethpersonaltxpooldebug
Only the eth namespace is enabled by default.
Subnet EVM is a simplified version of Coreth VM (C-Chain).
Full documentation for the C-Chain's API can be found here.
Compatibility
The Subnet EVM is compatible with almost all Ethereum tooling, including Remix, Metamask, and Foundry.
Differences Between Subnet EVM and Coreth
- Added configurable fees and gas limits in genesis
- Merged Avalanche hardforks into the single "Subnet EVM" hardfork
- Removed Atomic Txs and Shared Memory
- Removed Multicoin Contract and State
Block Format
To support these changes, there have been a number of changes to the SubnetEVM block format compared to what exists on the C-Chain and Ethereum. Here we list the changes to the block format as compared to Ethereum.
Block Header
BaseFee: Added by EIP-1559 to represent the base fee of the block (present in Ethereum as of EIP-1559)BlockGasCost: surcharge for producing a block faster than the target rate
Create an EVM Subnet on a Local Network
Clone Subnet-evm
First install Go 1.23.6 or later. Follow the instructions here. You can verify by running go version.
Set $GOPATH environment variable properly for Go to look for Go Workspaces. Please read this for details. You can verify by running echo $GOPATH.
As a few software will be installed into $GOPATH/bin, please make sure that $GOPATH/bin is in your $PATH, otherwise, you may get error running the commands below.
Download the subnet-evm repository into your $GOPATH:
cd $GOPATH
mkdir -p src/github.com/ava-labs
cd src/github.com/ava-labs
git clone [email protected]:ava-labs/subnet-evm.git
cd subnet-evm
This will clone and checkout to master branch.
Run Local Network
To run a local network, it is recommended to use the avalanche-cli to set up an instance of Subnet-EVM on a local Avalanche Network.
There are two options when using the Avalanche-CLI:
- Use an official Subnet-EVM release: https://docs.avax.network/subnets/build-first-subnet
- Build and deploy a locally built (and optionally modified) version of Subnet-EVM: https://docs.avax.network/subnets/create-custom-subnet