English 
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Deutsch Under the hood, the EVM is a stack-based state machine: every full node runs its own copy, and each one must compute the exact same result from the same starting state and transaction inputs. This determinism is what lets a decentralized network of independent computers agree on account balances and contract data without a central authority checking the math.
Smart contracts are deployed as bytecode, a sequence of low-level instructions called opcodes that the EVM reads and executes one at a time. High-level languages such as Solidity exist precisely so developers don't have to write opcodes by hand; a compiler translates the contract logic into bytecode before it's published on-chain. Every operation, from adding two numbers to writing a value into permanent storage, costs gas, paid in ETH. Gas caps runaway computation and is the practical reason the EVM is only "quasi" Turing complete rather than able to run truly infinite loops.
Because the EVM's rules are public and well documented, other networks have copied them rather than inventing their own execution environment. Chains like Polygon, Arbitrum, Base, and BNB Smart Chain run EVM-compatible or EVM-equivalent environments, meaning contracts written and tested for Ethereum can often be redeployed with little to no modification, and wallets, block explorers, and developer tools carry over as well. This shared standard is a major reason Ethereum's tooling and developer base extend far beyond its own base layer.
The tradeoff is that the EVM's execution model, requiring every node to replay every transaction, limits raw throughput, which is why gas fees spike under heavy demand and why much of Ethereum's scaling roadmap now runs through Layer 2 rollups that inherit EVM logic while settling back to the base chain.
