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

[v0.6.0] AvalancheGo@v1.11.0-v1.11.1 (Protocol Version: 33)
[v0.6.1] AvalancheGo@v1.11.0-v1.11.1 (Protocol Version: 33)
[v0.6.2] AvalancheGo@v1.11.2 (Protocol Version: 34)
[v0.6.3] AvalancheGo@v1.11.3-v1.11.9 (Protocol Version: 35)
[v0.6.4] AvalancheGo@v1.11.3-v1.11.9 (Protocol Version: 35)
[v0.6.5] AvalancheGo@v1.11.3-v1.11.9 (Protocol Version: 35)
[v0.6.6] AvalancheGo@v1.11.3-v1.11.9 (Protocol Version: 35)
[v0.6.7] AvalancheGo@v1.11.3-v1.11.9 (Protocol Version: 35)
[v0.6.8] AvalancheGo@v1.11.10 (Protocol Version: 36)
[v0.6.9] AvalancheGo@v1.11.11-v1.11.12 (Protocol Version: 37)
[v0.6.10] AvalancheGo@v1.11.11-v1.11.12 (Protocol Version: 37)
[v0.6.11] AvalancheGo@v1.11.11-v1.11.12 (Protocol Version: 37)
[v0.6.12] AvalancheGo@v1.11.13/v1.12.0-fuji (Protocol Version: 38)

API

The Subnet EVM supports the following API namespaces:

eth
personal
txpool
debug

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 1.22.8 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 git@github.com: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