What the Heck is EVM? And Why it's the Locker room of the Internet.

From coaching hockey to Ethereum, here’s what I discovered about the engine behind Web 3.

When I first stepped away from the rink and into the world of Ethereum, I didn’t know what I was doing. I just knew something BIG was happening. It felt like the early days of the internet all over again. Now, people weren’t just working on projects, they were rebuilding the web from the ground up.

But one concept kept showing up that made me feel like I’d landed in a foreign league,
the EVM.

Three letters that seemed to be everywhere.
People would casually say things like:

“It’s EVM-compatible.”
“You just deploy that to the EVM.”
“This dapp runs directly on the EVM.”

Needless to say I had no clue what that meant. So I did what I always told my players to do.
Go back to the tape. Break it down. Learn the system.

So.. What’s EVM?

Let’s break it down.

The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is the decentralized computer that runs the Ethereum network. It’s the environment where smart contracts, aka the backbone of Web3, get executed.

It’s like this:

• Ethereum = the team

• Smart contracts = the plays

• The EVM = the playbook, the locker room, and the ice itself. All rolled into one

Just like you need a rink to play the game, Ethereum needs the EVM to function. Every time you send a transaction, mint an NFT, vote in a DAO, or swap tokens, the EVM is doing work in the Zamboni room.

It ensures the same rules are followed by every node, everywhere in the world. It’s how Ethereum stays trustless, secure, and censorship-resistant.

From Systems to Code

As a coach, I lived in systems. Power plays, forechecks, line changes. We ran complex plays, but they had to work, no matter who was on the ice. The EVM works the same way. It enforces rules automatically. No refs. No corporate board. Just code.

What really hit me?
You don’t need permission to build in this world. You don’t need a degree, a boss, or a VC fund.
You just need an idea, some initiative, and a little ETH for gas.

That kind of freedom isn’t just technical.
It’s philosophical.

Why It Matters?

Learning about the EVM didn’t make me a Solidity expert overnight. But it gave me some context. The framework to understand what’s possible in Ethereum and how I could plug in.

You don’t have to be a coder to be a builder.
You don’t have to be an expert to contribute.

You just have to get on the ice.