AVM (Arbitrum Virtual Machine)
Also known as: Arbitrum VM, Custom Rollup VM, AVM Protocol
A custom virtual machine developed for Arbitrum rollups to optimize smart contract execution.
The Arbitrum Virtual Machine (AVM) is a virtualized execution environment specifically designed for Arbitrum's Layer 2 rollups. While Arbitrum One originally used AVM for interpreting smart contracts, it later adopted full EVM compatibility to support Ethereum-based dApps seamlessly. AVM offers optimized computation for scalable, low-cost execution and was built with interactive fraud proofs in mind. It enabled Arbitrum to execute off-chain transactions securely and efficiently while still relying on Ethereum for dispute resolution. Although superseded in practice by EVM compatibility, AVM was foundational to Arbitrum’s early architecture.